Professor Crewe says expansion of higher education must continue

Professor Ivor Crewe, president of the umbrella group Universities UK, said universities faced a funding shortfall of �10bn following two decades of cuts.

Professor Crewe said taxpayers alone could not shoulder the burden.

Universities were "highly sceptical" of the Tory pledge to legislate to abolish all tuition fees, and backed government plans for "top-up" fees, he said.

Speaking on Monday evening to delegates on the fringe of the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool, Professor Crewe said if the chronic under-funding was not tackled, UK universities would fall behind those in the Far East and Australasia.

Those who oppose expansion are mistaken Professor Ivor Crewe

He said the argument was not whether or not the money was needed, but where to find it.

"One thing is certain: either the taxpayer or the customer has to pay. We believe it is fair that the costs be shared by all those who benefit, including graduates, rather than falling entirely on the taxpayer."

University expansion

He said funding per student had fallen in real terms by 37% between 1989 and 2002, while student numbers had risen by 94%.

Professor Crewe went on to defend the expansion of higher education - something the Tories want to halt - saying graduates were increasingly in demand.

"Those who oppose expansion are mistaken," he said.

"Setting aside the social arguments, the economic case is compelling. Our economy has changed.

"Every survey of employers shows it is graduates who will be in demand, in ever growing numbers.

"If business and industry cannot find the skilled graduates they need here, they will simply go to where they can find them."

And plans to offer a vocational training to those young people turned away from a smaller university sector would not be without cost to the taxpayer, Professor Crewe said.

Sceptical

But he faced a hard task in convincing the party faithful, as he himself admitted.

"I rather doubt that by sheer rhetorical force I shall convince those of you who have now signed up to the abolition of university fees that the government's graduate contribution scheme is a better idea," he admitted.

And judging by some of the speakers during the party's education debate on Monday afternoon, he was right to expect a rough ride.

Louise Hall, the first Conservative to be elected to the National Union of Students' steering committee, said the Labour government's aim of getting 50% of young people into higher education was wrong.

The country was "desperately short" of skilled workers such as plumbers and hairdressers, she said, but the government was trying to force people who wanted to do such jobs to do a degree.

James Wharton, of the party's youth wing Conservative Future, said people should not be pressured into taking a long course when they would "get nothing from it".

Only the "best and brightest" should go to university with more vocational courses being laid on instead, he said.

The party's education spokesman, Damian Green, said in his conference speech that for those who did go to university, a degree should be "a meaningful and a useful qualification".