Tory hand-wringing for students from the poorest countries is pure hypocrisy | Smita Jamdar

Jacob Rees-Mogg – and even the universities minister – claim raising fees for EU students will help those from further afield. What nonsense

As news leaked that the government was planning to introduce higher fees and restrict access to student support for EU students, we were treated in parliament to a fine display of hand-wringing from supporters of this change. Apparently it would be morally indefensible, post-Brexit, to offer preferential terms to EU nationals wishing to study here, when compared with those from developing countries.

Up popped Jacob Rees-Mogg, proposing it would be better to spend “limited hard-pressed taxpayers’ fund … on the poorest countries in the world … not on some of the richest”. Last year Rees-Mogg delivered a petition to Downing Street demanding that the foreign aid budget be cut.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2vR2Ttz