A brief history of fee increases:
The Browne Review: unlimited?
The Labour-commissioned Browne Review wanted to lift the cap on fees completely, with some Universities suggested to start charging £14,000 per year. The coalition rejected this, limiting the increase. The Review also suggested raising the wage at which the fees begin to be paid back, from £15,000 to £21,000. The coalition accepted this, and made their policy even more progressive by replacing the 2.2% flat rate of payment with an income-dependent one.
Their policy was therefore not only less extreme than the result of Labour's review proposed, but actually meant that the poorest students ultimately paid back less than they would have under the previous Labour system. More students than ever now attend university. This was the equivalent of a progressive mansion tax, where only the richest have to pay more. The coalition took a Labour recommendation, made it less extreme and more progressive, following the footsteps of Labour's previous increases, and this is what Labour have criticised them for.
Miliband: £6,000 a year?
Ed Miliband is now proposing that fees are reduced to £6,000. This is a token gesture, because that's still twice the previous level. If he was genuinely against the increase, he would promise to lower them back to £3,290, or remove them altogether. His explanation of this policy (and of Labour's earlier increases), that the high fees are needed to cut the deficit (see his recent appearance on the BBC's Free Speech), show he actually believes a fee increase was necessary.
If Labour had won the 2010 election, they would probably have increased fees again, just as the coalition have. If the Lib Dems had won the election outright, they probably would have abolished them. It is simply convenient for Miliband to fake outrage over this, when he actually supports fees, when Labour introduced them for similar reasons, and when the recommendations came from Labour in the first place.
If the coalition had only doubled fees to £6,000, Miliband would still put on this show of anger, and yet he is now proposing exactly that. It is convenient for him to complain about any rise in fees, and then himself propose a rise of slightly less. If he was in power, this shows that he would also have increased them, at least to £6,000, probably to more (without the need to make a token point by undercutting the coalition), and a Labour government may even have followed their report's recommendations and removed the cap completely.
Let's not get lost in the rhetoric. I agree with the fee system, and so does Ed Miliband. It's just popular right now, and an easy way to score political points, to pretend otherwise.
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