This is Digital Journal’s third (and final) look at the different parties leading up to the British General Election. The aim here is to go beyond the headlines and focus in on topics that will affect the everyday voter, but which perhaps are not hitting the main headlines (unlike the equally important subjects of Brexit and terrorism).
In the first article of this election cycle we examined science and technology policy, covering everything from how the main parties aim to cover the gaps in European Union science research spending in the post-Brexit world to plans to improve the U.K.’s broadband coverage.
READ MORE: What the U.K. parties are saying about science and technology
In the second article we weighed in on the Conservative Party’s plans to adopt an independent report that has made recommendations on funding the health service through the sale of NHS assets. This plan has proved quote controversial, and the evidence for and against the future of health sector funding was evaluated.
READ MORE: Naylor Report spells bad news for the UK health service
As an aside we’ve also looked at the comments made by Theresa May in response to the London and Manchester terror attacks and her views on the need to regulate the Internet.
This third article focuses on education policy. As before the focus is on the three parties contesting the U.K. as a whole and which have a realistic chance of forming government (or at least being in coalition, assuming the vote edges towards a hung parliament).
Readers can read the three party manifestos for themselves, online at:
Conservative Party Manifesto “Forward Together”
Liberal Democrat Manifesto “Our Manifesto”
Labour Party Manifesto “A manifesto for a better, fairer Britain“
Schools
With school spending the Conservative Party aims to increase the overall schools budget by £4 billion by 2022. However, a large chunk of this will go into selective education, in terms of the building of free schools and grammar schools (the degree to which this is a good thing depends on your views of streamlining children on ability at the age of eleven). Labour has come out against selective education and plans for a unified national education service for England that is free at the point of use. The Liberal Democrats plan to invest nearly £7 billion extra in education, increasing school budgets and the pupil premium.
Another area of interest when it comes to schools is with treating the school as a nurturing environment. Here the Labour Party aims to introduce free school lunches. The Conservatives aim for free breakfasts for every child in every year of primary school, but this is offset by cancelling the free lunch program. The Liberal Democrats are silent on this issue.
Student funding
Perhaps the most emotive aspect of education policy is tuition fees for students. The Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats aim to keep the fee structure in place, whereas the Labour party has the clearly expressed aim to abolish fees for new students.
Labour also, along with the Liberal Democrats, has declared it will put in place measures to support poorer students. Both parties have a commitment to reintroducing maintenance grants for the poorest students. The Conservatives make no such proposals.
Technical qualifications
The appreciation that old-style academic qualifications may not be suitable for all aspects of the ever changing world where technology plays a major part, each of the parties discusses improving further and technical education. Here the Conservatives aim to introduce a new style qualification called “T-levels”; the Labour Party has spoken of increasing investment in technology orientated higher education; the Liberal Democrats aim to encourage technology orientated businesses to take on more apprentices.
Overseas students
Many universities are reliant upon overseas students coming to study, and this represents a key source of income as well as helping to expand the knowledge base. Many universities are concerned with the Conservative Party plans to restrict immigration and to incorporate student numbers into the readjusted figures. The Liberal Democrats and Labour, in contrast, encourage overseas students as temporary visitors to the U.K.
Science and education funding
According to the science magazine Nature, the U.K. spends 1.7 percent of its GDP on research. This is below the European Union average of two percent. All three major parties are committed to increasing this level of spending. The Conservative Party promises to raise the figure to 2.4 percent by 2027; Labour goes further and aims for 3 percent (albeit it a little later, by 2030). The Liberal Democrats are somewhat vague, pledging a “long-term goal” to “double innovation and research spending across the economy”.
A key part of any funding will be needed to offset the loss of European Union funding. With European support of university courses, archaeology tops the list, receiving 38 percent of its funding from EU government bodies, followed by Classics (33 percent) and information technology (30 percent). Some of these subjects will no doubt trigger debate as to whether or not they should be supported. However, information technology, at the very least, would need to be support to match the proclamations made by the main parties for boosting science and technology.
Assessment
The party manifestos are fairly light on education, although there are clear funding commitments from the Conservative Party and Labour Party. Looking at other factors like support for students and acknowledging the importance of immigration to support the university sector, the Labour Party appears the most clearly focused and offers the best solution for this policy area.
