Free Education for all: no fees, no cuts and no debt
To: Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan

Guarantee free education and training for everyone at all levels from Primary School to Postgraduate, including Further Education Colleges, apprenticeships and all other work-related training opportunities, by providing adequate funding to all colleges, universities and other training institutions, abolishing all tuition fees, cancelling all student debts, reinstating EMAs and a maintenance grant system similar to the one in place prior to 1998, and providing whatever other financial assistance students and learners may require to achieve the level of education or training to which they aspire and to reach their full potential, thereby enabling them to contribute their best to the flourishing of our national economy and to the quality of our shared society.

Why is this important?

– Education is a human right, not a privilege.

– For more than 50 years after WW2 we had free education, so if we could afford it then we can afford now, when this country is in fact wealthier!

– When countries like Germany, Brazil, Finland, Venezuela and Ecuador can afford free education, and when Scotland can do likewise, why can’t the rest of the UK?

– We have the highest tuition fees in Europe, but are also one of the richest countries in the world! This isn’t right.

– Tuition fees create and uphold social, racial and gender divides, so everyone should have access to free, quality education

– Education and training benefit not only students and learners but also our entire society, because better educated and trained citizens can contribute more to our national economy and to the quality of life of all members of our society.

– Tuition fee and maintenance loans burden students with years of debt but without significantly reducing the cost to the tax payer of funding higher education.

– Tuition fees deter many people from taking full advantage of the long-term benefits of a higher education and/or training

– Activists got Germany to abolish tuition fees and we won the fight against the student loan sell off in the UK. These are just two recent examples of how we can and have won what we’ve demanded. But how have we done this? Through a clear message and constant pressure through marches, direct action, campus mobilisation, opinion pieces and through petitions just like this(!) that show that people in this country don’t want tuition fees and believe we can afford free education for all.

Sign the petition here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/free-education-for-all-no-fees-no-cuts-and-no-debt