With just three days until the General Election, find out what the political parties promise to deliver for education.
CW: Transphobia
As part of our campaign to encourage students to TURN UP AND VOTE in the upcoming General Election, we’re researching party manifestos on topics that matter to you based on the Student Manifesto. This is to ensure you can feel informed when making your vote.
Here is a summary of some of their aims surrounding education that may, in turn, impact you as a university student:
Conservatives
Higher Education
- Intend to cut ‘low-value courses’ where dropout rates are high to fund 100,000 new apprenticeships
- Implement the Lifelong Learning Entitlement
- Increase public spending on Research and Development
- Work with universities to ensure students get the contact hours they are promised and their exams get marked
Wider Education
- Replace A-Levels and T-Levels with an Advanced British Standard giving 16–19-year-olds a broader education
- Introduce National Service for 18-year-olds – either taking on a role serving the community or securing a military placement
- Provide 60,000 more places for children with Special Educational Needs and a further 15 new free schools for SEN pupils
Green Party
Higher Education
- Propose to ‘fully fund’ every higher education student, restore maintenance grants and scrap undergraduate tuition fees
- Rejoin the Erasmus Programme, which enables students to study for a year in another European country
- Push the UK government to partner with universities, research institutions, and businesses to identify key areas for research and development.
Wider Education
- Put a trained and paid counsellor in every school and sixth-form college
- Free school meals for all children and free breakfast clubs for children up to Year 6
- Invest £5bn in Special Educational Needs provision in mainstream schools
- Increase school funding by £8bn, including £2bn to increase pay for teachers
Labour
Higher Education
- Develop a comprehensive strategy for post-16 education and will guarantee training, an apprenticeship or help to find work for all 18-21-year-olds
- Recognise that the current higher education funding settlement does not work
- Aim to create a secure future for higher education and the opportunities it creates across the UK
- Improve access to universities and raise teaching standards
Wider Education
- Recruit 6500 more teachers in key subjects, funded by ending tax breaks for private schools and employ mental health support staff
- Reform Ofsted
- Turn further education colleges into Technical Excellence Colleges and improve apprenticeships to boost skills
Liberal Democrats
Higher Education
- Establish a review of higher education funding to consider any necessary reforms
- Reinstate maintenance grants for disadvantaged students to make sure that living costs are not a barrier to university
- Introduce a Lifelong Skills Grant, giving all adults £5,000 to spend on education and training
- Introduce a statutory Student Mental Health Charter and require universities to make mental health services accessible to their students
- Give higher education institutions a statutory duty of care for their students
Wider Education
- Invest in new school buildings and clear the backlog of repairs
- Put a dedicated, qualified mental health professional in every school
- Extend free school meals to another 900,000 children living in low-income households, and aim to extend further to every child in primary school
Reform UK
Higher Education
- Scrap interest on student loans and extend the repayment periods to 45 years
- Fee loans would be written off pro-rata over 10 years of NHS service for doctors, nurses and medical staff
- Restrict undergraduate numbers as too many courses are not good enough
- Enforce minimum entry standards for university
- Universities must provide 2-year undergraduate courses
Wider Education
- Introduce a Patriotic Curriculum, for instance, balancing lessons about British or European imperialism with non-European examples
- Ban “transgender ideology” from schools and insist schools have single-sex facilities
- Double the number of Pupil Referral Units to keep more disruptive students outside of schools
Want to find out more about party manifestos and what your local candidates are saying? Use these tools: