Being a university student myself, I am fully aware at my uncertain future prospects and the amount of debt that I’m clocking up with the start of each new term. Luckily for me though, I missed the increase in tuition fees that would have seen me paying up to £9000 a year for my education, almost £6000 more than what I pay now.
For the most part, I feel that the increase in fees is a bad thing; depriving people of higher education because they simply can’t afford it. Some universities are asking unjustifiable amounts from potential students and the course that I am studying now would cost in the region of £7800 per year. There is no way that I would be willing to pay that.
The BBC’s student finance calculator estimates how much of their loan a person will realistically pay back after they, hopefully, start earning over £21,000 a year. However, when even top graduates are struggling to get work and those who do aren’t close to such a salary, then the chances of their debt being paid off is very slim. My friend Laura, for example, graduated with a 2:1 in Phycology from Exeter University, one of England’s top places to study, last year but has been forced to work in a call centre doing a job that she could of done without her degree.
Ok, so it’s a good thing for my purse that I probably won’t have to pay off my debt in full, but surely in the long run this is going to stretch the economy’s purse strings to absolute bursting point. Who else is going to pay off the debt that I can’t afford to? Future doctors and lawyers may be able to, but what about those of us who have chosen media related degrees?
Anyways, I digress, the reason I’m actually posting this rant is because The Guardian has reported that applications from UK-born students have fallen 15% since the fees were increased. Statistics from the article show that last year 157,116 UK citizens applied for a university place but this year, it’s inclined to only 133,357 applicants.
My response to that…I told you so Cameron! As I said before, there is no way that I would ever pay more than what I am paying now for my course and neither would the majority of my course mates I’m sure. Charging so much, especially for low ranking universities, is completely unjustifiable and surely not beneficial to them if they cant fill their spaces with students.
Creating £27,000 worth of tuition fee debt isn’t worth it at any university because it speaks wavelengths when even those who graduate from some of Britain’s best universities have to settle for £7 an hour. For future high paid professionals then yes, this works out fine I suppose but when your debt overrides your potential salary by a milestone then what is the point? It’s not like there’s a load of jobs to start applying for instead.
Trebling tuition fees has scared a lot of people away from university, and who, honestly, could say that they didn’t see this coming? You could argue that preventing people from going into degree-level education will create more jobs for graduates but it’ll create plenty more exclusion for poorer students.
I know that I would have never been able to afford £9000 a year, and if I hadn’t gone to uni then I’m sure I’d be stuck in a dead end job right now. My degree at least is going to give me a slight advantage among other job candidates even if it’s not the job that I pictured myself ending up in.
Increasing university fees hasn’t proven to be a success so far and I doubt that it will ever be. If these stats are anything to go by, then maybe the PM should seriously think about the class divisions he is promoting, the great minds he is excluding and the mountain of economical debt that he is fuelling.
Reverse these changes now Mr Cameron before it’s too late and the education system is damaged for good.
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