The education secretary calling universities ‘businesses’ sums up everything wrong with tuition fees

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson referred to universities as “businesses” during an interview on Channel 4. This summarises everything wrong with the neoliberal approach across the Tory Party and the Labour right that leads to them supporting tuition fees. Labour has now raised them to £9,535 per year – up over £8,000 from when Tony Blair introduced them and over £500 more than when David Cameron hiked them massively.

The Keir Starmer-led government hasn’t ruled out a further increase.

On Channel 4, Phillipson said:

Like all businesses, it’s for universities to decide how they manage their budget. Universities are autonomous, independent institutions, they prize that

Academics and student representatives have a driving seat in the educational direction through the University Senate. There is also a regulatory framework from the Office of Students, which has a leadership that the government appoints.

The fact that Scotland has free university, without even having its own full monetary regime, shows tuition fees are completely ideological. Westminster provides a grant for this, while charging students in England at the point of use.

A university simply isn’t a business

Calling universities businesses harks back to when Gordon Brown placed Labour advisor Peter Mandelson as head of universities under the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills in 2009. This removed a department dedicated to education, rather than the market.

At the time, then-general secretary of the university and college union, Sally Hunt, said:

UCU is very concerned that this merger seems to signal that further and higher education are no longer considered important enough to have a department of their own. The fact they have been lumped in with business appears to be a clear signal of how the government views colleges and universities and their main roles in this country.

Education has the power to change people’s lives, and if we are serious about the important role it can play… then we need experts in education at the helm, not business interests. We will be seeking an urgent meeting with, and assurances from, the minister that both further and higher education have clear and defined roles in the new department.

Calling universities businesses can erode the notion of public good, bring into question the value of education in enriching subjects for the overall human experience like the humanities and arts and lead to decisions based on the profit-motive. It can motivate short termism like courses on the study of David Beckham’s hair, rather than improving the university long term.

“Abolish tuition fees” – the reaction

On social media, people condemned Labour’s decision to increase the fees:

Abolish tuition fees. pic.twitter.com/TE2eJVKZQa

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) November 5, 2024

Corbyn said:

She must be aware that many students are put off going to university from the already high level of fees.. isn’t this going to drive more people away from university…?

Others pointed out Starmer’s hypocrisy:

When Keir Starmer promised to abolish tuition fees, he spoke about how much he’d benefited, as someone from a working class family, from not having to pay them.

Today Labour are increasing them.pic.twitter.com/vJpS3zNC6M

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) November 4, 2024

And more people still noted how simple it would be to rebalance the economy to remove tuition fees:

It’d cost the government just £8bn to totally abolish tuition fees.

In comparison, the richest 1% of Brits have been allowed to hoard a combined wealth of almost £3 TRILLION.

Don’t let anybody tell you there isn’t enough money to pay for things.

Tax the fucking rich already.

— Evolve Politics (@evolvepolitics) November 4, 2024

The underfunding of universities is one of many problems that needs fixing in our society after over a decade of Tory austerity.

But increasing tuition fees isn’t how to do this.

We need to start properly taxing wealth and use the funds raised to invest in public services.

— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) November 4, 2024

Others backed the notion of education as a “public good”:

The government’s increase to tuition fees is wrong.

Students shouldn’t have to pay tuition this year, or any year.

It’s time to abolish tuition fees and cancel student debt because education is a public good, not a commodity.

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) November 4, 2024

Featured image via Channel 4 News – YouTube