LABOUR MP Claudia Webbe has led a cross-party call on the government to scrap tuition fees, cancel student debt and refund the accommodation rents in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ms Webbe’s letter to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, co-signed by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Labour, Green, SDLP and DUP MPs, has been backed by trade unions and student campaigners.

It warns that the pandemic has left many university students in financial peril and criticises the government for repeatedly ignoring the advice of unions and scientific experts against students’ return to campuses.

Due to the government’s failure to act, students are now missing out on the usual university experience while still incurring up to £57,000 in student debt, the letter says.

It argues that the “failed experiment” of extortionate tuition fees has saddled young people with debt, deterred working-class people from gaining higher education and turned universities into profit-seeking businesses. 

It urges the government to “support students by refunding rents, cancelling student debt and scrapping tuition fees for good.”

Explaining the letter, Ms Webbe said: “For too long universities have been treated as private businesses, left at the mercy of market forces, with students paying more for less. 

“They are now paying for accommodation they cannot live in, which is why we should support student rent strikers who have been demanding rent refunds.”

University and College Union (UCU) general secretary Jo Grady said: “This government has failed to prioritise education and has left staff and students in limbo. 

“No student should be made to pay rent for accommodation they cannot use, and we support students campaigning against this unfairness.”

Ms Grady said the Covid-19 crisis has “exposed deep flaws in a market-driven education system” reliant on tuition fees.

“Education is a public good and needs to be publicly financed,” she said.

“Sadly, from free school meals to digital devices and last-minute funding packages, this looks like a government that has to be shamed into supporting students.”

National Union of Students (NUS) national president Larissa Kennedy welcomed the government’s new £50 million student harship fund, but said it would do little to address the systemic issues faced by students.

“The government should listen to these MPs and ensure that no student is pushed into financial hardship or is stuck paying rent for accommodation the government has instructed them not to use on public health grounds,” she said.

“Beyond that, it is clear that a longer-term strategy is needed to underpin a new post-pandemic vision for education. 

“Central to that must be a significant increase in the maintenance funding available to students, a reinstatement of maintenance grants, action on student housing and movement towards fully funded education.”

University of London (UoL) Rent Strike campaigner Emerson Murphy said the pandemic has exposed the marketisation of higher education over the last 10 years as an “unmitigated failure.”  

“Many of us are barely able to get by, having to rely on foodbanks during the crisis while taking on up to £20,000 of debt a year,” he said.

“Universities have become businesses, more reliant on private finance than those of any other developed country, prioritising their brands over student well-being, and expensive vanity projects and expansions over education.  

“It’s this privatisation and marketisation which allows university managements to get away with salaries often topping £500,000, while students struggle to afford basic necessities.”  

Mr Murphy said it is working-class students who bear the brunt of such policies, with the poorest students graduating with the most debt. 

UoL students are officially on rent strike, withholding about £350,000 in rent from the university, demanding a 40 per cent annal rent cut, proper mental health support, no forced staff redundancies and no repercussions for rent strikers.  

“We have been treated as cash cows, with no consideration for our mental or financial well-being,” Mr Murphy said. 

“In normal times, 60 per cent of us work alongside our studies. But the pandemic has meant that this is just not possible.  

“We are calling on UoL management to meet us and recognise what students have been going through.”