A ¡°statement of principles¡± challenging the ideals of ¡°consumer sovereignty¡± and financial ¡°realism¡± that underpin current government policy on higher education has been issued after an event rallying support against coalition reforms.

The eight-point statement emerged from the Convention for Higher Education, organised last month by the University of Brighton¡¯s Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics and co-sponsored by the Campaign for the Public University, the Council for the Defence of British Universities and the local branch of the University and College Union.

¡°To insist that a university education directly benefits only those individuals gaining a degree is wilfully to misunderstand that university education is a social good as well as an individual one,¡± it says.

¡°Arguments that a university education should be paid for by the individuals it benefits are destructive of the very idea of such an education as a social good.¡±

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Meanwhile, ¡°a real and serious commitment to widened participation¡± could also ¡°help to counter the damaging effects of great disparities in wealth¡±.

The text argues that ¡°clear-thinking, independence of mind and intellectual courage benefit the public and not just individuals¡± and that ¡°consumer sovereignty is both an inappropriate means of placing students at its heart and liable to distort well-structured education¡±.

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Furthermore, ¡°higher education should be seen as part of a generational contract in which an older generation invests in the wellbeing of future generations that will support them in turn.

¡°The higher progressive taxes needed to make this possible would therefore benefit everyone ¨C including current taxpayers.¡±

The document also addresses the vexed question of tuition fees, stating that austerity should not be used as an excuse for levying fees instead of funding higher education directly.

¡°The withdrawal of public funding is not something that should be accepted because of ¡®realism¡¯ about the public finances,¡± it says.

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¡°The removal of fees in Germany is an indication that an alternative is possible: an alternative to the present funding regime should urgently be sought.¡±

matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com