Latest news: NUS suggests alternatives to Gove yacht

The National Union of Students has offered education secretary Michael Gove ten alternative ways of spending the £60million he suggested using for a commemorative royal yacht. 16/01/2012

Mr Gove supposedly suggested using £60million of tax payers’ money to fund a yacht to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations in a private letter to fellow ministers.

The government denied that any plans were in place to use tax payers’ money to do so, with Nick Clegg saying that ‘with very little money around, this isn’t top of most people’s list of priorities’.

The National Union of Students (NUS) proposals include: covering the £9,000 tuition fees of 6,500 students for a year; providing 45,000 students with the Educational Maintenance Allowance for a year; training 7,500 apprentices at a cost of £8,000 each for a year, and providing more than 20,000 ten-week internships with the London Living Wage. 

‘Thankfully, this ridiculous idea has already been ruled out but we felt it was important to remind Mr Gove and (Universities Minister) David Willetts of the benefits £60million could bring to education,’ said NUS president Liam Burns.

‘At a time of record youth unemployment and slashed education budgets these are just a few initial suggestions of what £60million could achieve,’ he added.

Other ideas put forward by the NUS include investing in college buildings, funding secondary school teachers and extending bursaries.