Following the revelation that Education Secretary Michael Gove, has suggested buying the Queen a yacht to celebrate her birthday, supposedly after an original suggestion from Universities Minister David Willetts, NUS has suggested ten alternative ways to spend the estimate £60m cost on Further and Higher Education.

The list of ten alternatives is as follows:

• £9,000 tuition fees for more than 6500 students for a year.
• Provide 45,000 students with Education Maintenance Allowance for a year.[1]
• More than 20,000 ten-week internships paying the London Living wage.[2]
• Continue the £60m investment in improving college buildings announced last year.
• Extend the first year £1,000 bursary element of the National Scholarship Programme by two years for 30,000 students.
• Treble the enrichment budget for college students upping the amount of time spent of things like pastoral support, tutorials and extra-curricular activities from 30 hours per student per year to 90 hours.
• Replace more than ¾ of the budget for AimHigher – which promoted widening access to higher education.
• Train 7,500 apprentices at a cost of £8,000 each.
• Fully fund the training of 4000 secondary school teachers.
• Ensure the survival of the Care to Learn scheme with £15m to spare.

NUS President, Liam Burns, said:

“Thankfully this ridiculous idea has already been ruled out but we felt it was important to remind Mr Gove and Mr Willetts what benefits £60 million could bring to education.

“At a time of record youth unemployment and slashed education budgets these are just a few initial suggestions of what £60m could achieve.

“I’m sure the Queen would rather her Diamond Jubilee was celebrated by funding the future, than frittered away on pointless luxuries.”