Writing in her column in The Guardian, Curtis said “People – parents, grandparents, students, graduates, employers – care about how much debt students accrue. So how have we reached a point where the political parties are being allowed to duck the issue?”
Her words follows a week in which higher education minister David Lammy was widely criticised for failing to adequately address the issue of university funding in his speech to the Universities UK conference.
Curtis agreed with the comments made last week by NUS President Wes Streeting and said that “Only the National Union of Students has set out a detailed position – and not an easy one, considering their constituency – to back a graduate tax…this is the best start to the debate yet.”
NUS President Wes Streeting said “We are ready to have a debate about radical alternatives to the current system. We believe there is a way to generate the income the sector so badly needs without furthering the destructive market in fees. Labour and Conservative politicians need to develop a backbone, explain how their spending commitments will match their rhetoric and show willingness to have a proper debate on this issue ahead of next year’s general election.”
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