Thursday, November 11, 2010

An interesting... odd statement from David Cameron

Regarding the hiked-up university tuition fees in the UK which sparked serious protests in Londo yesterday, David Cameron said: "Raising tuition fees will do two things. It will make sure our universities are well funded and we won't go on increasing so fast the fees for overseas students … We have done the difficult thing. We have put up contributions for British students. Yes, foreign students will still pay a significant amount of money, but we should now be able to keep that growth under control."

Let me highlight the important bit here: we won't go on increasing so fast the fees for overseas students

Hi David. Do you know one of the main reasons why the Liberal Democrat hype before the election dampened into the squib which was their portion of the vote? It was their pro-immigration stance that did it.

The people that voted for you? Well they disagree with your lapdog about that particular topic.

And you're from a pretty proud and nationalistic country.

So what did you actually mean? That the British people should pay more to attend British universities but the foreign students won't?

In fairness, Cameron was answering a question directed to him while he is on his trip to China, and the question cold very well have been "Are fees for foreign students also going to increase?" for all I know.

But the Prime Minister should know how that quote might sound to some people.

1 comment:

Mike McClelland said...

As someone who paid overseas fees to attend a UK university, I'd love to say "hell yes!" to Cameron's comments. However, the backdoor way in which this comes across is unsettling.

It would be one thing to raise an initiative to attract foreign students to the UK and to actively debate the pros and cons of such a venture. It's another thing entirely to raise the fees for domestic students while throwing a bone under the table into the mouths of eager international transfers.

The whole thing adds a veil of uncomfortable ambiguity to what should be a very transparent situation.

Well spotted and explicated.