Image: Richard Townshend, [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Labour MP Emma Hardy calls for clarity over financial help for universities
Shadow universities minister Emma Hardy has urged Michelle Donelan, her government counterpart, to reassure universities that a financial rescue package is on its way.
In a letter to universities minister Michelle Donelan sent on 21 April, Hardy said that while she welcomed the fact Donelan was “looking closely at the Universities UK proposals for comprehensive sectoral support”, she said it was “essential” no university is allowed to go bust and called on the minister to “provide a clear message that the security and certainty our universities are desperately looking for will be available”.
“Allowing any higher education institution to fall hinders the ability of our economy to bounce back from this crisis and denies UK citizens the equality of opportunity that should be a given right,” Hardy wrote.
Vice-chancellors’ body UUK has asked the government for rescue package for universities, which are facing up to a £7 billion loss in international students’ fee income alone. Although a government response was first expected last week, then pushed to early this week, no response has yet been published and the Treasury is understood to be scrutinising the proposals.
Echoing concerns raised in her recent article for Research Professional News, Hardy said she worried that “a failure to provide timely and comprehensive support to our universities in the face of this crisis will create ‘cold spots’” where students in some parts of the country would be unable to access higher education.
In the letter, written following a telephone meeting between both ministers, Hardy also called on Donelan to “send a clear message” to private student accommodation providers “that continuing to charge students rent for accommodation they cannot access is unacceptable”. Hardy said that while some universities had been “proactive” in cancelling accommodation rents and pressuring private providers to do the same, action had been “patchy”.
According to student housing charity Unipol, 52 universities have yet to decide whether they would refund students or have chosen not to do so. The Office for Students has said that if students believe their accommodation provider is behaving unfairly during the pandemic, they can report their landlord to the Competition and Markets Authority.
Hardy also welcomed Donelan’s claim that students who have suffered disruption to their studies during the coronavirus pandemic would not have to pay more tuition fees if they have to retake courses, but stressed that “more clarity” was needed over who would cover the extra costs. The National Union of Students has launched a campaign asking for tuition fee refunds or free repeats of the year because of disruption caused by the coronavirus.