So England is on its way out of a recession, which was brought on by wild government spending, banks taking too many risks and British citizens borrowing too much money. The government has decided to save money by cutting university funding and increasing the maximum amount that universities can charge students in fees. Now while it sounds ‘ok’ on paper, to cut funding and make people pay instead, there were a massive number of flaws from the outset.
Firstly what idiot came up with the idea that only a small amount of universities would charge full whack when the tuition fee cap was raised from £3250 to £9000? It is plain economics, universities need to prove they are good educational establishments, they also need money. By putting a price on the quality of your education you immediately force almost all universities to charge the full amount if you want to be seen as a good brand. There is no surprise what so ever that most universities in the UK want to charge the full £9000 for fees. In a couple of years when universities are struggling then maybe fees could go down, but how many universities will fail first?
There is also fact that universities need money to improve themselves and to survive. So if universities did charge different rates wouldn’t that create a massive poverty trap within the education system, where poorer universities made less money, couldn’t improve facilities and failed more than successful universities? That would provide poor education and facilities for those who couldn’t afford full price universities and increase the discrimination against degrees based on university choice. I guess it works ok for those in government though, they make enough money as it is, maybe they could claim it on expenses?
How about the money getting borrowed to pay for these fees? What happens when all these students take out the loans, the money gets spent and the borrowers can’t afford to pay even the original loan amount back and default on the loan after 25 years? As I understand one of the main reasons the country is in this recession is through over lending to people who can’t afford it. Why the fuck is the government planning on doing this through the education system?! Assuming the average student spends 4 years at university that means student debt increases by about £24,000 per student, this would make my debt £48,000 (currently about £24,000 from 4 years university)! To pay back just the base loan, without interest, would require paying £1,920 a year back for 25 years. To pay this back you’d need to be on a salary of £42,000! According to the Monster.co.uk average salary graphs even people with over 20 years experience only earn on average £38,000, with most other demographics earning a lot less! That leaves a massive gap of loans being paid out and money not being paid back, let alone profit. Massive costs in the short term and more debt in the long term, this is from the business aspect, not counting the debt the borrowers will be in for life!!
All in all I really can’t see how people think this system will be good and work. From what I see it just puts a price on education and could possibly drive a dangerous poverty trap within the countries universities. It causes massive amounts of debt in a highly unsustainable way creating a funding black hole, students will be borrowing far much more than they can ever expect to pay back, who will cover this cost? Even at £3300 a term people are asking themselves if it’s really worth it to go to university. The number of graduates in menial jobs or unemployment is about 50% and degrees aren’t worth much compared to experience and portfolio. I completed university with a first and still struggle to find a job, I need experience I don’t have yet. At £9000 a term I think the price of education simply isn’t worth it when you can teach yourself from home and earn money and experience at work whilst you do it. This is also just covering funded undergraduate courses, not self-financed postgraduate qualifications. I’d love to do a PhD or MSc, but that idea is out of the question now.
I’m quite looking forward to 2012 to see how the number of applications to university changes, I imagine headlines of “University applications down 70%”. It does mean that in a few years there will be fewer young graduates out there so companies will value degrees more and there may be more vacancies available for graduates, which is good, but that’s a while down the line. It’s terrible for young people wanting to go to university though. The university reforms are a complete shambles and there are so many glaring holes and possible problems created by the idea I don’t see how it will work. Hopefully this will increase the amount of apprenticeships open to young people and industries will cover the poor education prospects be hiring and educating people themselves like they used to. Then again some of what I worry about just doesn’t seem to be mentioned by people so maybe it isn’t a real issue.
Rant over, JimmyRayUK
