Results 1-13 of 13 for ("top up" fees) speaker:David Blunkett

Oral Answers to Questions — Education and Employment: University top-up Fees (8 Feb 2001)

Mr David Blunkett: I am really sorry to disappoint the hon. Gentleman. I have made my position clear during the past two years: I am against the levying of top-up fees. I can now make the Government's position clear. If we win the next general election, there will be no levying of top-up fees in the next Parliament.

Oral Answers to Questions — Education and Employment: University top-up Fees (8 Feb 2001)

Mr David Blunkett: My hon. Friend is right—there was a vigorous campaign, and understandably so. I assure him that the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 permits us to rule out top-up fees. The power to do that is in the hands of the two Houses of Parliament. As I have just said, with our majority in the House after the next general election, we shall ensure that those fees are not levied.

Oral Answers to Questions — Education and Employment: Top-up Fees (23 Mar 2000)

Mr David Blunkett: I, and the House, have specifically ruled out top-up fees. Over the three years of the spending review, an additional £1 billion plus has been allocated to higher education. We have reversed the efficiency gains that were running at 4 per cent. under the previous Government, and we have also put a real-terms increase of 11 per cent. into universities. Therefore, we feel justified in...

Oral Answers to Questions — Education and Employment: Top-up Fees (23 Mar 2000)

Mr David Blunkett: Anything that discourages open access to all universities and their departments in this country is, in my view, wrong. Those who argue for substantial differentiation in fees have to answer where the resources would come from to pay for those on low incomes to enter university departments, given that the top-up fee that they were levying would have to pay for that and for any improvement in...

New clause 5: New Arrangements for Giving Financial Support to Students (8 Jun 1998)

Mr David Blunkett: I shall not give way. I shall make two final remarks. First, our proposals are a direct alternative to universities introducing top-up fees, which were mentioned by the hon. Member for Havant. The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that, had we not reorganised and introduced an entirely new way of funding universities and access for students, we would have faced a barrage of top-up fees...

Orders of the Day — Teaching and Higher Education Bill [Lords] (16 Mar 1998)

Mr David Blunkett: ...that currently has to be found—will, of course, have to be paid, and will have to be made available by the middle of the second term. We know that universities are in a position to collect such fees because they told us so when some of them were pressing for top-up fees to be introduced. We made explicitly clear that top-up fees play no part whatever in our proposals. Despite...

Opposition Day: Student Finance (4 Nov 1997)

Mr David Blunkett: The previous Government introduced a mortgage-type loan scheme that demanded draconian repayments of up to £129 a month over five years as soon as the trigger came. We propose an income-contingent loan scheme, repayable over a lengthy period of up to 23 to 25 years, according to an individual's income. It is a progressive principle, espoused by all those—including my...

Opposition Day: Student Finance (4 Nov 1997)

Mr David Blunkett: ...and there is. 1 want to confront that fear head on. Fear is generated by misunderstanding about what the Government will introduce. There is fear among those who believe that they will have to pay top-up fees, when we have explicitly ruled them out. There is fear among people who believe that they will have to find the money immediately rather than paying it back over a lengthy period...

Higher Education (23 Jul 1997)

Mr David Blunkett: ...fallen by about 25 per cent, over the past decade, with consequences for the quality of teaching, seminar work, materials and investment. Yet the increase in participation among socio-economic groups A to C has been double that of groups D and E. The present system is clearly not working. The same level of funding for students today as existed in the 1970s would cost the taxpayer an extra...

Higher Education (23 Jul 1997)

Mr David Blunkett: ...Minister. Given the extent of what we have announced this afternoon and the commitment to investment in the universities, we have to make it clear that we cannot have a freebooting system, in which top-up fees help some at the expense of others. I understand the strong feelings of those in universities who believe that they could raise lots of money independently from the state, but that...

Higher Education (23 Jul 1997)

Mr David Blunkett: We shall explore whatever is necessary to ensure equity in the system. I say to the university vice-chancellors who have mooted top-up fees that they cannot have it both ways. They cannot threaten to introduce top-up fees because the Government have not addressed their financial needs, including investment in the future, and then introduce top-up fees when the Government have grasped the nettle.

Higher Education (23 Jul 1997)

Mr David Blunkett: ...of an ivy league— I want universities to co-operate. I want access to be available for all students—whatever their background, income or geography—to all institutions without a top-up fee. I believe that we can achieve that. We can achieve it on the back of the decisions that we are taking, so that we can raise and invest the money necessary to make it possible.

Higher Education (23 Jul 1997)

Mr David Blunkett: It is precisely to avoid that problem that we are bringing in this system instead of top-up fees, which universities claim they have the freedom to introduce willy-nilly under current law. So the truth is the very opposite of what my hon. Friend fears. The idea that graduates, who earn at least 20 per cent, more than their counterparts who are non-graduates, are poor does not hold water. We...