MPs are tonight poised to debate the government's decision to scrap funding for equivalent or lower qualifications (ELQs). This decision was made without consultation with anyone in the higher education sector, and will hit many of those who need financial help the most.
The NUS will join other representatives of the broad opposition to this decision next week to give evidence before a Commons select committee to express the concerns of students.
As a result of these funding cuts, the Open University is set to lose more than £31.6m by 2014-15 and Birkbeck will lose £7.8m over the same period. And these are by no means the only affected institutions. Across the country, universities with successful records of recruiting part-time and mature students, women learners, black and minority ethnic students and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds will be compromised - the universities of East London, Wolverhampton, London Met, Sunderland and Bedfordshire to name but a few.
How can the government claim to be committed to widening participation in higher education when it's cutting funding for those institutions that have most success in delivering on that very agenda?
These institutions will be badly affected by these cuts. They will have to cut "unviable" courses, and continue only with those that bring in the most cash to survive.
The Leitch review showed how this country will increasingly need people to learn new skills to meet the demands of a constantly shifting global economy, yet the government has decided to limit the very retraining that will ensure the needs of the labour market are being met.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England gave the government a range of options regarding funding, but these have not been published. The entire higher education sector has been shut out of the debate and is united in its concern.
The government must recognise the folly of this, and defer its decision until it has carried out a proper consultation.
