All entries for December 2007

VC refuses to take sides on tuition fees.

The Vice Chancellor, Nigel Thrift has refused to confirm whether he will support a raise in the cap for tuitions fees. He told RaW News that he would wait until the evidence has come to light which would show whether the top-up fees have affected the entry of prospective students from lower income backgrounds.

This comes at a time when the Union has signalled that it wants to campaign to retain the Cap, moving the campaign away from the goal to abolish tuition fees to a more attainable outcome. The Government is due to review the Cap in 2009, although the Conservatives have called for the review to begin now so that more evidence can be collected.

You can listen to the interview with the VC again here:

http://www.radio.warwick.ac.uk/~sshirley/VC%20interview%20oct%2007%20edited.wav

Sam Shirley
News Editor.
05/11/07

: 02 Dec 2007 19:22 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Lib Dem Candidate calls Cameron “Clegg–Lite”

Nick Clegg, one of the two candidates in the race to be leader of the Liberal Democrats, has brushed aside suggestions that he is similar to David Cameron. In an interview with RaW News, Mr Clegg said that Mr Cameron was “Clegg-Lite” and unlike the Conservative leader, he was a liberal. After a speech where is opponent Chris Huhne said that he did not want to be a “stunt double” to David Cameron, a thinly veiled reference to him, Mr Clegg claimed that a liberal Conservative was a contradiction. He also said that he believed that tuition fees were right and said that the fact there were less than 18 members of Warwick Liberal Democrats was “not great”. Mr Huhne, who also spoke to RaW News on Saturday at the first leadership hustings in Rugby, highlighted the plight of the environment and wanted to avoid placing a burden of debt on students, although he still supported the present position of his party towards tuition fees.

You can hear the full interviews and debate about tuition fees by downloading the podcasts from the website.

Sam Shirley 28/10/07

: 02 Dec 2007 19:19 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Students’ Union to pay half of £11 million for its Rebuild

Joe Kirby, the SU President, has confirmed that half of the money for the union rebuild will be coming from the students’ union. In an in Interview with RaW News, he said that £5.5 million of the £11 million project would be paid for by the union whilst the rest is an investment from the University. However, after questions about where he would get the 5.5 million pounds, he expected that it would be found from an increase of revenues from the new enlarged union, but offered no plan B if this was not the case. He was confident that society funding would not be affected. The union rebuild was confirmed at the end of last term when the University gave it the go-ahead. The money for the rebuild will be coming out of the University’s books until the Students’ Union pays its share back.

Sam Shirley 11/11/07

: 02 Dec 2007 11:49 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem