Top-up fees to cost Leeds students 39,448,333 pounds in 2006

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 26th Apr 2005

Lib Dem Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Phil Willis this morning joined Leeds students and Leeds North West Parliamentary candidate, Greg Mulholland, at the Parkinson Steps to unveil figures suggesting that Leeds students will owe the Government up to £39,448,333 as a result of Labour's controversial top-up fees. By 2008 - when all undergraduates on 3-year courses will be affected - the figure will be three times as much.

Phil Willis reiterated the Lib Dems' commitment to scrap all tuition fees and restore grants to the students who need them most. In the key marginal seat of Leeds North West, the votes cast by students are likely to be decisive. With the Lib Dems making sweeping gains in local elections since 2001 and no visible Tory threat, Labour's majority looks increasingly vulnerable.

Commenting, Greg Mulholland said, "This figure brings home the scale of the debt which Labour are piling upon students at the start of their working lives. By 2008, Leeds students will be well on the way to owing the Government a quarter of a billion pounds. On May 5th, they owe it to themselves to send a clear message that they cannot be taken for granted."

Phil Willis said, "This election is the only chance students will get to make the Government sit up and listen. Leeds North West can be the seat which puts a stop to this disastrous policy. The Lib Dems will work for the abolition of fees and the reintroduction of grants."

Phil and Greg were joined by Jess Haigh - the Leeds student who accosted the Prime Minister on his recent visit to Leeds. She told Tony Blair that she will back the Lib Dems after Labour let her down over top-up fees and the war in Iraq.

NOTES:

• Phil Willis is Lib Dem Shadow Secretary of State for Education and is defending the Harrogate and Knaresborough seat in North Yorkshire.

• The approximate figure £39,448,333 is arrived at on the basis of the last published figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (2003/04). The total numbers of undergraduates is likely to have increased slightly. The figures show 24,415 UK/EU undergraduates at the University of Leeds (each to pay £3000 per annum) and 22,550 undergratuates at Leeds Metropolitan University (each to pay £2000 per annum). The total figure has been divided by three roughly to account for the fact that only the 2006 intake will be covered by top-up fees in their first year. In the second year, twice as much will be owed, and three times as much in the third year. In total, the figure would then be £236,690,000 - almost a quarter of a billion pounds before any of the affected students graduate.