THE head of Huddersfield University has vowed to join his students in debt repayments.
Prof Bob Cryan yesterday revealed he would take on a “phantom debt” in solidarity with students facing tuition fees of up to £9,000.
The University of Huddersfield vice-chancellor will make repayments equal to those which his students face. The money will go into a hardship fund for students at the university.
Prof Cryan made the announcement yesterday in an email to staff and students.
He wrote: “From 2012 our students will have to pay higher fees to compensate for the more than 80% cut in teaching funding that we will receive, and they will have 30 years to pay it back.
“I cannot ask our future students to do this without being prepared to do it myself.
“I have benefited from an outstanding education at the University of Huddersfield and so, once we have set our fee levels, I intend to take on the same 30 year tuition fee debt as our future students and will set up a standing order to make payments directly to a student support fund for our university.”
It was unclear yesterday how much Prof Cryan would pay into the fund.
The vice-chancellor sent the email the day after Parliament voted to raise the maximum tuition fee from £3,290 to £9,000. The Government has already decided that the teaching grant will be cut by 80%.
Prof Cryan criticised the Government’s policies in yesterday’s email.
He wrote: “We have made it clear that the University of Huddersfield and the University of Huddersfield Students’ Union fundamentally disagree with the reduction in state support for teaching, and in passing on costs to students.”
Prof Cryan added: “I am not prepared to allow a change in Government policy, however extreme, to undermine the good things we have achieved together at our university.
“We begin this process of change in a far stronger position than many other universities. Our financial strength puts us in the top 25% of the university sector and gives us time to plan the changes we need to make.
“We have already put in train a major change programme that will reduce waste, improve efficiency, enhance effectiveness, reduce cost and seek additional income.
“I am sure that, by the university and the students’ union working closely together, at the end of this process we will be a stronger and fitter institution.”
The email was forwarded to the Examiner by a student who described the vice-chancellor’s debt pledge as a “fabulous gesture”.
A university spokesman said yesterday that Prof Cryan did not want to comment further on the issue.
l David Cameron has demanded that tuition fee thugs face the “full force of the law” amid calls for an independent inquiry into the mob attack on the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.
But the Prime Minister defended Scotland Yard’s handling of the situation, insisting there was no excuse for the “appalling” violence and vandalism.
The son of Pink Floyd frontman Dave Gilmour has apologised after being identified as one of those who climbed on the Cenotaph, the nation’s monument to its war dead, as thousands of youngsters vented their fury over MPs’ decision to treble university fees to a maximum of £9,000 a year.
Police have so far arrested 33 people as a result of the disorder in central London that left dozens of officers and protesters injured. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has launched a probe into one incident which left 20-year-old student Alfie Meadows requiring brain surgery after allegedly being hit with a truncheon.
