Top-up fee cuts and damnation 2

You reported last week that the National Union of Students "may sponsor a legal challenge if any institution proposed to cut fees in clearing".

The NUS is fully aware that universities are, regrettably, legally allowed to change their fee and bursary arrangements during clearing. We remain totally opposed to this idea. We submitted amendments to the legislation to try to prevent institutions doing this. These, however, were rejected. This illustrates one of the worst aspects of a variable tuition fee regime to which NUS remains firmly opposed on the grounds of fairness and equality for all students.

What our lawyer will look into is whether there are any grounds for complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. Aside from this, we will, of course, continue to lobby for legislative change on this issue.

Julian Nicholds
Vice-president, education National Union of Students