This is my first blog post and that being said I thought I would talk about a subject quite close to my heart. Being a student currently in the UK University system I feel particularly receptive to the media's constant student and graduate bashing. Headlines which seem scrutinise students at every level of education is an all too often occurrence in this country. The problem is that it seems that nothing students do seems to satisfy the general populace. As pass rates for GCSEs and A-levels rise these these exams are deemed too easy and results achieved insignificant yet the the media also bemoans the lack of university places in clearing (the place for students who don't achieve their required results in these so called "easy" exams). So students shouldn't be achieving the good grades they are currently getting yet more students should be able to get a place at university, these are the sort of contradictions such news stories are filled with.
But it was a couple of recent stories which I found really interesting. The first I would like to mention was found in the metro newspaper which states that the number of young people who get a degree in the UK has fallen to 35% putting this country 15th in the world now behind countries such as Poland and Ireland. The Response of University minister David Willets is that the government this year will fund an extra 10,000 places at university. Now this response brought my mind back to an earlier story, you see with this country now facing massive cuts in every area, talk of the funding of extra university places seems like just another contradiction pushed in to the student debate. The story I'm referring to is the idea of a graduate tax proposed by Vince Cable (the cabinet minister responsible for higher education) as one solution for filling the gap in university funding.
The graduate tax in principal would be a permanent tax on anyone who graduates university which would mean they start paying the government back earlier and continue paying them even after your debt has been cleared. This is proposed as an alternative to ideas such as simply raising tuition (to anything from £5000 - £7500 a year) or allowing universities to operate privately. The problem is that no matter which solution is chosen students will have to pay considerably more for education in the future.
Now there are those out there who believe that students having to pay more of a contribution towards their education is not really a problem, but the cost is quickly becoming a bigger and bigger barrier to entry for working class students looking to enter university. As I have already stated the number of young people gaining degrees is falling and asking students to pay more and start their working life's with more and more debt is only going to exacerbate the problem. University will soon become seen as an unattractive and altogether very elitist option and even if the number of students applying to university continues to increase is it fair to continually chip away at the advantage gaining a degree is suppose to afford students by saddling them with ever increasing levels of debt.
Now we are currently far from American style fees resulting levels of debt of around £40,000 before living costs but I do think we are starting to see the tip of that ice berg, when my parents went to university it was free, just the year before I started fees were £1,000 a year and now I fees currently stand at over £3,000 a year.
I know that as the world recovers from a recession and universities continue to require greater funding the money has to come from somewhere but I think there is another option not being considered. If tuition fees are to increase they could also be means tested. Currently the size of the maintenance grants is based on the income of whoever is supporting the student applying yet fees are set at one level for everyone. I believe fees could be also be subsidised by the government base on how much each student (and those who support them) are able to pay.
I am hoping that one day we will see the return of free university education for all but if we do not want to take away the option of university from a large number of young people we should adopt the approach of those who can afford higher fees should pay more money and those who can't afford the fees pay less.
In conclusion as students face the toughest job market in about three decades I think those in charge should give them a break.
Why should students have to pay for the great student funding crisis?
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