Higher fees will damage education, union leader to tell conference. Opening day speech slams market in education.

Increasing the financial burden on students and learners will damage both further and higher education, Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU) will tell delegates at the union's annual congress today (Wednesday).

Clearly setting out the union's opposition to any attempts to increase university tuition fees in next year's review, Sally Hunt will go on to launch a blistering attack on threats to UK tertiary education, which is now the most privatised in Europe.

Her wide-ranging speech on the first afternoon of the three-day conference will urge delegates to help shape 'an alternative vision of education and to impress their values on the minds of public'.

Sally Hunt will say: "The landscape in which we work is changing dramatically. Further major reforms of further and higher education to make them increasingly demand led, employer dominated and market driven are underway. The world will not wait for us to get our act together. One statistic tells the story better than I ever could. While public expenditure on post-16 education has risen 6% in ten years, private spending has gone up 80%. With around a third of the system now privately funded, the market is taking over in front of our very eyes. Our system, once the envy of the world, is now the most privatised in Europe.

"I have emphasised again and again that the defence of our profession will be a priority for me in UCU. Our campaigning work around challenging the market is a defining moment in that defence. We have to put forward an alternate vision of education and to impress our values on the minds of the public.

"The education system we want is one where every student can develop as an individual. One where colleges and universities are communities of learning not simply upmarket training schemes. One where education is recognised to be about personal growth as well as personal achievement. One where people can use study to change direction in their lives.

"We won't create a system like this by increasing the financial burden on students and learners. And that is why UCU will challenge any attempt to increase the cap on university fees or increase costs to college learners. And Congress, you won't create a system like this by over working and under paying the life changers at the heart of education - the staff."

A full version of Sally Hunt's speech will be available from Wednesday afternoon on the UCU website

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