Responding to the announcement that tuition fees could reach up to £9,000 per year Prospect General Secretary Paul Noon said:

“Many of our members represent the ‘squeezed middle’ of society already facing huge pressures from coalition policies to freeze pay, reduce redundancy and pension payments and axe 500,000 public sector jobs.

“Now parents who harboured the ambition of a university education for their children have seen that go up in smoke as today’s decision moves it beyond the scope of what is feasible for a normal family.”

As a union with a strong recruitment history among graduate grades, Noon said the impact of today would still be felt among the next generation of Prospect members “who will view starting a career with a debt of around £40,000 as a huge disincentive.

“The coalition has shifted responsibility directly from the taxpayer to the student by slashing the teaching budget by 40%. The £2.9bn cut to universities was the harshest in the entire spending review. Today’s decision needs an urgent rethink – the coalition should be investing in higher education, not cutting it.”