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'Save from birth for university'

26/11/2008

Parents should be saving money from their child's birth to pay for university, a Reform report released today has said.

The report recommended funds be reallocated from teaching and capital budgets giving every 18-year-old an account of £13,000 to spend on education, training, or apprenticeships.

The group suggested parents top up the account with savings from the moment of a child's birth, both to add funds and set a good example of saving.

Reform believes this will help to boost the attitude and skills level of the 'spoon-fed' generation entering the workforce.

"We're already in recession. A more productive workforce can make a major contribution to improving the UK's prospects for future growth," Elizabeth Truss, deputy director of Reform, said.

"We urgently need to replace a bureaucratic skills maze with a system that puts individuals in charge of their own learning."

However, the report has caused outrage in the University and College Union (UCU).

"UCU does not believe proposals such as unlimited fees, coupled with a hopeful suggestion that parents will start to save from the birth of their children to pay for them, are the way to ensure that our brightest students will have access to the courses best suited to their talents," UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said

"Allowing a market to drive the cost of post-16 education would create a huge gulf between the have and have-nots where the wealthy pick and choose their courses and leave everyone else to scramble around for what they can afford. Such a system would be bad for students, bad for our education system and bad for the country."

Next year, higher education will be considered by the government and an apprenticeships bill is due in parliament in December.