Thousands of people in Cambridgeshire will be frozen out of Further Education at institutions like Cambridge Regional College if the Government goes ahead with plans for loan-based fees, says Daniel Zeichner.

National protests are planned tomorrow (June 22), including in Cambridge. At the weekend, Mr Zeichner raised the problems faced by young people in Cambridge with Labour’s Shadow Skills Minister Gordon Marsden at Labour’s National Policy Forum:

“Unlike the tripling of undergraduate fees, these plans have attracted little attention, but I believe they will be very damaging for young people in Cambridge who have already missed out. Even the Government admit that at least 20% of existing adult learners are likely to fall by the wayside, and it may well prove to be many more. Their own market research shows that only 11% of those surveyed would still definitely proceed with their courses if loans are introduced. This is a bad policy, which will make an already tough situation for young people even worse -; they should scrap it.”