Speaking today at an event organized by Universities UK, Chuka Umunna said that, had the Labour Party been in power after last year¡¯s general election, tuition fees would have been capped at ?6,000 in order to prevent the ¡°black hole¡± that had emerged in the financing of the student loan scheme.

Criticising the news today that 24 higher education institutions have re-negotiated their access agreements to reduce their average fees ¨C mainly by shifting financial support from bursaries to fee waivers ¨C in order to bid for additional places, Mr Umunna said it proved that widening access was ¡°very much an afterthought¡± in the new system.

¡°Fee waivers of course help the government¡¯s mess as it reduces its bill,¡± he said.

¡°The chaos remains for students and the university system, a system which gets ever more complex and bureaucratic.¡±

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Mr Umunna said that the reforms were ¡°no way to treat our universities¡± and invoked the words of Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary, who referred to the dismantling of the Regional Development Agencies as ¡°Maoist and chaotic¡±.

¡°That could equally have applied to another area of his brief,¡± he said.

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¡°Institutions have had to make decisions affecting their future financial viability not knowing how the rules will change month to month.¡±

He also said that universities had been put in a ¡°ridiculous position¡± when they were forced to set their fee levels and access agreements before the publication of this summer¡¯s White Paper.

Arguing that the numerous changes to the reforms had been designed to benefit the government, rather than the sector, he said that coalition¡¯s response had been a long way from the ¡°evolutionary change¡± argued for by UUK.

¡°¡®Core and margin¡¯ is designed to reduce the cost of courses to make up for the government getting its sums wrong ¨C it isn¡¯t for the benefit of students or the higher education sector,¡± he said.

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The four commitments the Labour Party would make on higher education, Mr Umunna said, were: ¡°Fairness for students, autonomy for universities, sustainable funding and universities playing a central role in the economic as well as the cultural life¡±.

¡°The bottom line is that universities are integral to our future success as a country,¡± he added.

sarah.cunnane@tsleducation.com