Liberal Democrats highlight student debt and their plans to scrap tuition fees

4.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 21st Apr 2005

The Liberal Democrats have highlighted plans to scrap university tuition fees and top-up fees, and introduce of grants of up to £2,000 a year for poorer students so that no one is deterred from going to university by the fear of debt. The plans, funded by a 50% tax rate on earnings over £100,000, would cut debt for those on low incomes by an average of £7,000.

Charles Kennedy said "It is impossible for students to think about getting on the property ladder or planning their pensions while they were suffering huge levels of debt. He also said student debt was particularly unfair to women who earned less on average over the course of their lifetimes and therefore would take longer to pay the money off."

Colin Ross, Liberal Democrat candidate for Wolverhampton South West which has thousands of students said "Student debt has increased 240% under Labour, and a recent report ranks the UK as the third most expensive place in the world to get a university education. A place at university should be based upon the ability to learn not the ability to pay. We are now living with a situation where young people in our country are facing mortgage style debts and the real threat of bankruptcy because of the escalating costs of a university education."