'Liberal Democrats believe university education should be free and everyone who has the ability should be able to go to university and not be put off by the cost' - so says the Liberal Democrat manifesto in the run up to this year's election. An Ipsos Mori poll found that raising the cost of a degree to £5,000 a year would deter almost half of those from the most deprived backgrounds who would otherwise have gone on to higher education, while raising fees to £7,000 would cut the number by nearly two-thirds. In autumn 2009, the Student Loans Company fell into chaos after failing to process 209,000 students' grants and loans – more than half of all applications – by the start of the university term. 75% of disabled students had failed to receive loans 3 months into the start of the first term. The company in charge of student loans and grants "faces ongoing risks", a powerful committee of MPs warned on 7th December 2010. We the undersigned are against the 80% cut in government teaching grants to universities and the increase in tuition fees cap to £6,000 or up to £9,000 per year, and petition for an all-party solution to university funding which reduces government cuts and student fees and uses a fair graduate tax to recoup loans.