Government wins tuition vote

The vote takes place later on Tuesday

All the Northern Ireland MPs who take their seats in the House of Commons Chamber have voted against the government's proposals on university top up fees.

The government won Tuesday's vote by a majority of just five.

Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had said they planned to oppose the Higher Education Bill, which will allow universities to charge students £3,000-a-year, payable when they earn £15,000.

Those Northern Ireland MPs who voted against the government were Ulster Unionists Roy Beggs, David Burnside, Lady Sylvia Hermon, Martin Smyth and David Trimble; Democratic Unionists Gregory Campbell, Nigel Dodds, Jeffrey Donaldson, Ian Paisley, Iris Robinson and Peter Robinson; John Hume, Eddie McGrady and Seamus Mallon of the SDLP.

The measure applies to universities in England, but not to their counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The bill allows for top up fees to be introduced in Welsh universities, but the responsibility for enforcing the measure lies with the Welsh Assembly.

The Department of Education and Learning said the result would not automatically affect Northern Ireland and that it would observe what happened next and consider the implications.

The Democratic Unionist Party, with six MPs, said it would have liked the government to look at changing the tax system to allow for a university tax credit for parents sending children to university.

They also believed there should be a tax incentive for businesses to give donations to university.

The Ulster Unionists said they had sympathy for the government and understood the shortfall in university funding.

We are elected not to be regional or parochial, but to use our judgment as best we can on all the issues that come before us. David Trimble UUP leader

However, they argued that the government proposals would lead to more bureaucracy and more artificial targets.

Former SDLP leader John Hume said he believed the top up fee proposals would be a deterrent to people from poorer backgrounds.

He said he would not have made it to parliament as a child of an unemployed father without the access to the education he enjoyed.

The four Sinn Fein MPs don't take their seats in the Commons Chamber.

However, they favour abolishing all university fees and reintroducing maintenance grants funded by what they term progressive taxation.

Disparity

During the debate, Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson said all the main political parties in Northern Ireland were opposed to the government's proposals.

"The spectre of higher charges for going to university will deter a sizeable number of prospective students regardless of when and how the fees have to be paid," he said.

Last week, UUP leader David Trimble branded a Conservative motion calling on Scottish MPs to abstain from voting on matters related purely to England and Wales as "completely misconceived".

"We are elected not to be regional or parochial, but to use our judgment as best we can on all the issues that come before us," said the Upper Bann MP.

"Even if a matter relates exclusively to part of England, I sometimes feel that I can make a contribution and improve the quality of decision making both for the whole of the United Kingdom and for particular parts of it."

The measure will lead to a disparity between English universities and those in Northern Ireland which will continue to charge the current up front fee of just over £1,000 a year.

That might make Belfast's Queen's University and the University of Ulster more attractive to English students in the short term, but it will leave their respective chancellors with a funding headache.

This will have to be addressed by local politicians, if the Stormont Executive is revived, or by Education ministers appointed from London if the current period of direct rule continues.