University Tuition Fee Cap raise to £9,000 — 14 Dec 2010 at 20:16

Lord Bichard voted to raise the UK's undergraduate tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year.

The majority of Lords voted against raising the UK's undergraduate tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year.

The majority of Lords voted against changing the motion for debate from:

to:

  • This House
  • regrets that the Government has failed to consult adequately with parents, students, higher education bodies, employers and local authorities on raising student tuition fees and to convince many people of the fairness and sustainability of its proposals for funding higher education;
  • urges the Government to undertake more public consultation on the issue, including consultation with future graduates and their families who did not contribute to the consultation over the Browne review;
  • further considers that there should be an independent impact assessment on (a) the financial consequences of the proposed fees on students from both lower and middle income families, and (b) the financial consequences of the proposed fees on women, including a full assessment of the impact of the fees on equalities and fairness, and further calls on Her Majesty's Government to commission new research to analyse the probable impact on demand for university courses of fees being increased to the range of £6,000 to £9,000 per annum from students from lower and middle income families and women; and
  • further considers that, prior to contemplating any increase to the basic amount specified in section 24 of the Education Act 2004, the Government should publish a White Paper on reform of higher education funding, allowing for consultation and for consideration of alternative proposals.

Command paper Cm 7986 is a draft document which became The Higher Education (Higher Amount) (England) Regulations 2010.

The £9,000 "Higher Amount" is the maximum fee an institution can charge if it has a plan in place under section 33 of the 2004 Higher Education Act[3]. Such plans require institutions to set out how they are to promote awareness of financial and access arrangements for the course. Regulations may be introduced to require governing bodies to monitor their institutions' compliance with their plans.

Sections 30-38 of the 2004 Higher Education Act deal with plans, and their enforcement. The plans are approved and enforced in accordance with Section 34 of the Act, by the "Office for Fair Access" which calls the plans "access agreements"[4]. Access agreements can be viewed on the OfFA website[5].

Ministerial guidance as to the content of the plans has been issued.[6]

In the absence of such a plan institutions are only permitted to charge the "Basic Amount". This division was followed by another vote which set the "Basic Amount" at £6,000 per year.[7]

The £4,500 cap applies to final years and sandwich course years where there is a shorter than usual amount of attendance required at the institution.

There was a [http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2010-12-09&number=150 House of Commons vote on the same Statutory Instrument required for setting the upper limit for the university fee to £9,000 per year.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Not-Content)Minority (Content)Turnout
Bishop0 28.0%
Con164 (+1 tell) 082.5%
Crossbench43 2636.7%
DUP0 250.0%
Independent Labour0 1100.0%
Lab0 154 (+2 tell)65.0%
LDem58 (+1 tell) 475.9%
Non-affiliated1 05.9%
UKIP1 050.0%
UUP0 133.3%
Total:267 19060.4%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

Lords for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible lord who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Party | Vote

NamePartyVote
Lord Adebowale Crossbenchaye
Baroness Afshar Crossbenchaye
Lord Alton of LiverpoolCrossbenchaye
Lord Best Crossbench (front bench)aye
Lord Bilimoria Crossbenchaye
The Earl of ClancartyCrossbenchaye
Baroness Coussins Crossbench (front bench)aye
Lord Eames Crossbench (front bench)aye
Lord Elystan-Morgan Crossbenchaye
Lord Freyberg Crossbenchaye
Baroness Greenfield Crossbenchaye
Baroness Grey-Thompson Crossbenchaye
Lord Harries of PentregarthCrossbench (front bench)aye
Baroness Hollins Crossbenchaye
Lord Kilclooney Crossbenchaye
Lord Krebs Crossbench (front bench)aye
The Earl of ListowelCrossbenchaye
Lord Low of DalstonCrossbench (front bench)aye
Baroness Masham of IltonCrossbenchaye
Lord May of OxfordCrossbench (front bench)aye
Baroness Meacher Crossbenchaye
Baroness O'Loan Crossbench (front bench)aye
Lord Patel of BradfordCrossbench (front bench)aye
Lord Rix Crossbenchaye
Baroness Stern Crossbench (front bench)aye
Baroness Warnock Crossbenchaye
Lord Wedderburn of CharltonCrossbenchaye
Baroness Young of HornseyCrossbench (front bench)aye
Lord Cotter LDemaye
Lord Fearn LDemaye
Lord Smith of CliftonLDem (front bench)aye
Baroness Tonge LDemaye
Lord Maginnis of DrumglassUUPno

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