Petition To Condemn the White Paper "Students at the Heart of the System" and call on Govt to consider the proposals of Alternative White Paper

We the undersigned call on the Government to scrap its proposed White Paper; "Students at the Heart of the System" and to instead consider, with a view to implementing, the proposals of the document "In Defense of Public Higher Education", drawn up by academics in response to the White Paper.

We recognize that "Students at the Heart of the System" will fundamentally damage the UK Higher Education system, burdening students with unacceptable levels of debt and paving the way towards the privatisation of UK universities. In the words of senior academics responsible for drawing up the Alternative White Paper, the Government's proposed changes are "a reckless gamble, a dangerous experiment in university funding with no precedent in British experience. Its different elements are incoherent".

The Government has zero electoral mandate for pushing through the proposals outlined in the Higher Education White Paper.