UCU: Saddling students with debt will push unemployment even higher

The University and College Union (UCU) said yesterday that cuts to the number of places at university and plans to saddle people who wish to return to college with huge debts had to be rethought as unemployment reached a 16-year high.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said:

"The government has to rethink plans to make access to education even harder for people in this country. We have record levels of unemployment and simply cannot afford to leave so many with no opportunities.

"Education has the potential to change people's lives and they will be far better off learning than joining an ever-increasing dole queue. Government’s efforts to portray some people in society as work-shy and lazy are insulting and unfair when it is the government who is closing the door on their ambition to earn or learn."