STUDENTS COULD FACE £7,000 TUITION FEES

10.12.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 19th Oct 2009

There is now less than eight months to save a new generation of young people from huge increases in university tuition fees, according to Newcastle campaigner Ron Beadle.

He was speaking out after the Conservatives suggested they will increase tuition fees to £7,000 if they take power at the next general election, which has to be held by next June.

That will see tuition fees for undergraduates more than double. Currently there is a cap of £3,300 in England and Wales.

Peter Mandelson has already suggested that Labour will allow universities to charge more than at present if re-elected - though the party is too scared to push through the changes it wants before June.

Ron Beadle will speak at a National Union of Students debate on the future of Higher Education funding in Newcastle in November.

He will tell students that only the Liberal Democrats will scrap tuition fees. The party believes university education should be free and everyone who has the ability should be able to go - and not be put off by the cost.

Ron Beadle, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary spokesman for Newcastle North, said: "I look around Newcastle North and I see people return from university with no job and a bank balance tens of thousands of pounds in the red. What sort of message is that?

"Labour and now the Tories are showing their true colours. They don't care about young people - they just want to saddle them with staggering amounts of debt.

"The choice is clear: the people of Newcastle North can vote for a politician who will condemn a generation of youngsters or for the Liberal Democrats who will make education free again, giving young people the best possible start."