DECISION MAKING ON UNIVERSITY FINANCES

Early day motion 393, tabled 12 January 2004 by Austin Mitchell (Labour). Signed by 17 members.

That this House considers that a system of decision making in which policy is handed down from the Prime Minister and Ministers accompanied by demands that the governing party and Parliament accept it, if the Government and the New Labour project are not to be destroyed, is coercive and hardly rational; is concerned that when such a process is invoked in university financing, it allows irresponsible oppositions to argue opportunistically for impossible, or simply silly alternatives in the hope of defeating the Government; suggests that such matters should be decided in the light of full information and clear analysis; and therefore recommends Her Majesty's Government postpone its proposals on university fees to allow a public inquiry to research, analyse and cost the different ways of financing higher education and encouraging wider participation, as well as looking at best practice overseas, so that Parliament can take more rational and better justified decisions on a fair and equitable system of university financing based neither on political opportunism nor wilful assertion, but on the best interests of universities, students and the nation .

Signatures by party: Labour 14, DUP 1, Labour/Co-operative 1, UUP 1.