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Issue 139 · Wednesday, May 22, 2002
UEA'S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
FREE
Outgo ing Vice-Chancellor slams social ineq ual ity at universities
KATIE HIND Deputy Ed itor
VICE-CHANCELLOR Vincent Watts has called out to government officials to charge rich students higher rates of tuition fees . In an exclusive interview with Concrete, he claims that those from poor backgrounds are currently being deterred from going to University because they are afraid of getting into debt. In an attempt to help students financially, Mr Watts believes that the rich should be paying out more money so that universi· ties can afford to give scholarships, in the form of maintenance grants, to poor students. "I would like to see richer students pay more tuition fees so that we can afford to give those from poorer background s scholarship grants. Some students who went to independent schools had to pay around £15,000 a year, so £1,000 is nothing to them ," sa1d Mr Watts. "The problem of supporting students from poorer backgrounds needs to be addressed. I thmk that more should be done
to help students with little money. At the moment we· do have hardship funds, but they are nowhere near substantial enough." "The thought of being in thousands of pounds of debt after graduation is scary for some people and this puts them off . Doing this would mean that we can use the money of those who can afford to give to us and make it easier for others who have financial difficulties, " added Mr Watts. But Un1on Welfare Officer Polly Evans hopes that the issue of student debt can be resolved in another way. "Luckily Vincent Watts is not a policy maker in this country. Hopefully the government review of this 1ssue can come up w1th a slightly fairer resolution to the Higher Educat1on funding cri sis," said Polly. Th1s year, the Un1on has been campaigning for the abolition of tuition fees and the restoration of maintenance grants for all.
For our exclusive interview with Vice-Chancellor, Vincent Watts, turn to page eight.