Overview:
The Global Affairs team share some of the most important weekly headlines that you may otherwise have missed.
A note from the editor
This week, Laura van Heijnsbergen writes about English tuition fees increasing for the first time since 2017 while Katarina Harrison-Gaze writes about the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Outside the UK, Nick Marshall covers the news from another country whose government has just failed to be re-elected: Mauritius.
As usual, a lot goes on outside of OX1, and we hope this week’s Outside OX1 helps to explain some of them!
Tuition fees set to rise in England
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Starting next academic year (2025-26), the UK government will raise the tuition fees cap for home students from £9,250 a year to £9,535 in England. This change does not affect students studying in other parts of the UK. UK students studying in Wales will continue to pay £9,250 a year, while Northern Ireland charges Northern Irish students £4,750, and students from other parts of the UK £9,250. Tuition remains free for students in Scotland who have been resident in the country for at least three years prior to the start of their degree. This change will affect both students starting courses in 2025 and those currently studying whose courses will still be ongoing next year.
There are a number of reasons for the rise in tuition fees for home students. Fewer international students (who provide a huge chunk of UK universities’ funding) following a change to visa policy and a currency crisis in Nigeria has left English universities more pressed for funding than ever before. There is disagreement, however, over the extent to which this relatively slight rise in tuition fees will really make a difference. This rise in tuition fees is not nearly at a level with inflation since 2012, and the financial problem facing British universities is severe. A report in January indicated that 40% of universities forecasted a deficit for the 2023-23 academic year.
Some other changes are also being made to student finance – English maintenance loans will be rising by up to £414, though, again, there is debate over whether this will actually enable students to cover their living costs. The rise in tuition fees does not necessarily mean that students will be making higher monthly repayments once they graduate. The repayment system will remain the same, in that people will only have to start making payments once their income has crossed a certain threshold. Students starting a university degree in 2023 have forty years to pay off their loan aftwards: any outstanding balance is written off.
Archbishop of Canterbury resigns over handling of child abuse scandal
Katarina Harrison-Gaze
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has resigned over the handling of child sexual abuse within the Church of England.
On November 7th, the Manik report, an independent review into the Church’s handling of John Smyth, a “prolific” child abuser in the 1970s and 1980s was released. Labelling the response by the Church of England as “wholly ineffective”, the review said the handling of the case amounted to a “coverup”. The report said that Welby “could and should” have reported Smyth’s abuse to the police in 2013, but noted he failed to do so.
Smyth, a barrister, abused boys who attended evangelical Christian camps in the 1970s and 1980s, before moving abroad once the abuse was discovered. The review noted that Welby volunteered at the same evangelical Christian camps as Smyth in the 1970s and that it was “probable” that Welby had some “level of knowledge” that Smyth was of concern. Welby refuted this claim, saying he had “no idea or suspicion of this abuse before 2013.”
In 2013, following a victim coming forward, senior figures in the Church of England were made aware of Smyth’s abuse. However, the review notes, senior figures failed to inform the police in both the U.K. and South Africa, where Smyth was living. Up until his death in 2018, he was allegedly abusing boys.
After mounting pressure from both inside and outside the Church, including criticism from the Bishop of Newcastle, Justin Welby announced his resignation in a statement on Nov. 12. Welby said he “must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024″. He added that “the last few days have renewed [his] long felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England.”
Welby said he hoped his decision to resign would make it “clear” how “seriously” the Church of England “understands the need for change”. The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, echoed the sentiment in a statement, praising Welby for resigning, saying it was “the right and honourable thing to do”.
In a joint statement, Joanne Grenfell, the Church of England’s safeguarding bishop, and Alexander Kubeyinje, the Church’s national director of safeguarding, said they were “deeply sorry for the horrific abuse inflicted by the late John Smyth and its lifelong effects”. They were “appalled” that a clergy person “could believe that covering up abuse was justified in the name of the gospel.”
The next Archbishop of Canterbury will be decided by the Crown Nominations Commission. They will recommend the nomination to the Prime Minister, before conveying it to the King, who makes the official appointment.
Mauritius’ PM concedes ‘huge defeat’ in general election as opposition wins by a landslide
Nick Marshall
On Sunday 10th November, approximately one million registered voters on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mauritius voted to elect the 70 members of the National Assembly. Incumbent Mauritian Prime Minister, Pravind Jugnauth, hoped to seek re-election for another five-year term following a historic agreement with the UK that saw Mauritius’ former colonial power cede sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius. Nonetheless, Jugnauth, leader of the Militant Socialist Movement, lost in all of the country’s 21 constituencies.
Jugnauth accepted that his coalition, L’Alliance Lepep, has suffered a “huge defeat” in the 2024 Mauritian General Election, with the opposition coalition, L’Alliance du Changement, taking all 60 of the mainland’s constituency-elected seats in the country’s parliament.
The Rodrigues People’s Organisation claimed the remaining two constituency votes on Rodrigues Island. Jugnauth’s coalition only won 2 seats using the Mauritian ‘Best Loser’ system–an indirect voting system for the 8 remaining National Assembly seats designed to ensure fair ethnic representation in the National Assembly. This means that Navinchandra Ramgoolam, leader of the Labour Party, is set to become Mauritius’ next Prime Minister again, having served as PM from 1995-2000 and 2005-2014.
Mauritius is commonly ranked as one of Africa’s most stable democracies, with voter turnout normally hitting close to 80%. Yet, this election was tainted by a wire-tapping scandal that saw leaked phone calls published online in October, involving numerous public figures. This featured dozens of conversations mentioning opposition members, police, lawyers, journalists, and members of civil society. One phone call appeared to ask a forensic doctor to alter the post-mortem report of a person who died after being beaten in police custody. In response, the government introduced a social media ban on November 1st set to last until voting closed to “preserve national security”. Masses of backlash resulted in the government withdrawing this ban within 24 hours. The Prime Minister has launched a full judicial investigation into these leaked recordings and suggested that these clips may have been doctored using artificial intelligence. Nonetheless, this scandal fed into the existing voter worries about eroding transparency in Mauritius’ democratic systems, with the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, a system that ranks African nations based on overall governance, downgrading Mauritius to second place behind the Seychelles in November.
The country of 1.3 million residents markets itself as a gateway between Africa and Asia, with a strong nominal GDP per capita (approx. $11,400, similar to that of Serbia) largely driven by an offshore financial sector, tourism, and textiles. The island has also seen impressive economic growth, with growth for 2024 forecast at 6.5%, down slightly from 7% in 2023. Yet many voters do not feel the benefits of Mauritius’ economic success, with high petrol prices creating protests and hunger strikes over the past few years.
Consequently, both major centre-left coalitions campaigned for increased spending during the election run-up. L’Alliance Lepep advocated for raising minimum wages, increasing pensions, and reducing VAT on basic goods, whereas L’Alliance du Changement also promised increased pensions, alongside free transport and internet services, and reduced fuel prices.