Students battle on fee front

The biggest international gathering on higher education ever took place in Paris last week. David Jobbins reports on how participants saw their role

While the plenary sessions were monopolised by ministers and heads of delegations, students made a significant impact in the commissions and debates and tabled a series of amendments for consideration for inclusion in the final declaration.

Their main concerns were about representation in decision-making and governance and escalating tuition fee levels.

Students argued it was for the state not them to finance their studies, and objected to the use of terminology such as "consumers" and "clients" instead of "student".

Iona Wakely, the National Union of Students member of the UK delegation, said: "Governments must allow students democratically and autonomously to represent themselves."

Zoltan Feher, a national officer of the Hungarian national student organisation, said: "In 1995 the then Hungarian government introduced tuition fees. We students demonstrated against this but it did not help. But with the election of a new government the era of tuition fees is now over."

Australian student James Park claimed the introduction of fees had savagely affected groups traditionally under-represented. But Jennifer Ledgar, his delegation head, said the Higher Education Contributions Scheme was "equitable and efficient".