10 December 2019
The Green Party will write off existing debt of all former students who studied under the
Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government’s exorbitant £9,000 tuition regime, it will
announce today.
The Greens would also fully fund every higher education student and scrap tuition fees for
undergraduates, as part of its plans to ensure education is fully accessible and does not
laden people with a lifetime of debt.
The plans, as laid out in the party’s ambitious and fully-costed manifesto, would also include
increased funding for adult education, to be in line with training needed to implement the
Green New Deal.
The Green Party is the only party committed to writing off the debt for those who were forced
to pay £9,000 each year to go to university after the coalition government tripled tuition fees
in 2012.
The Greens would also spend an additional £7.8bn per year on scrapping tuition fees for
new graduates and restoring grants.
Green Party deputy leader Amelia Womack will announce the party’s higher education
proposals in central London today.
Womack will say:
“Education is a public good, and we’re proud to invest in the next generation. That’s why the
Green Party is committed to scrapping tuition fees.
“It makes me so angry that tuition fees were introduced by a Labour government which had
benefited from free education themselves. Then the coalition government tripled fees,
scrapped maintenance grants, and sold off the student loan book.
“The result is a generation of young people saddled with mountains of debt as they start out
in life. So yes, we say education should be free, for life, for everyone.”
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