The Thick End Of The Wedge

[Guest sibon]

Lord Browne's review of funding for Universities will report this week. The indications are that he will recommend that the Universities should be allowed to charge whatever they like for their courses.Link here.

 

The original introduction of Top Up fees was a typical, undemocratic bit of Blair politics. Ignoring a manifesto pledge and a huge back bench rebellion. It only got through parliament because Labour had a massive majority.

 

Now we have a move to shift all University funding from the state to the individual. The thick end of the wedge has arrived.

 

Will it also arrive with Child Benefit and the myriad other cuts in public spending that we are about to see?

 

Should we be bothered?

[penno]

This is one more indication of Tory self interest to ensure that their place in society remains unchallenged. People will have to be very wealthy to get a good class education or make massive sacrifices which will not even be a choice for many. The working classes will have to be satisfied with apprenticeships and vocational courses. The last they want us to do is start thinking. Who knows where that could lead to.

[Suffragette1]

This is extremely worrying and any of the following will happen:

 

Some of the universities at the bottom of the league table will go bankrupt and close, as they will not attract students who are not guaranteed of being high earners if they leave with a debt the size of the average mortgage;

 

Higher education will become the sole preserve of the rich, who can afford to end up with 50k worth of debt before they even get their first job?;

 

There will be a sliding scale of fees according to the status of the university. Oxbridge and Russell Group universities will be able to charge the full amount making it even harder than it currently is for the state education sector people to access these establishments, thereby retaining their elite nature, ensuring that the top jobs and politics remain in the hands of the mandarin class.

 

It's dreadful.

[biotechpete]

It's a sad and backward policy.

 

Unfortunately it was always the ultimate end point to the 'expansion' of further education and the state funded job creation in the university sector under Labour.

 

It's a shame to admit it but we just can't afford, as a country, to sustain a world class university sector from tax receipts. Especially when we spend more on social security than we get back in income tax.

 

I'm currently working at one of the worlds top institutions in the US and the cuts have already come here. It's a scary ghost town. This is what we face in the UK for the foreseeable future and the brain drain has already begun.

[dell12]

This is one more indication of Tory self interest to ensure that their place in society remains unchallenged. People will have to be very wealthy to get a good class education or make massive sacrifices which will not even be a choice for many. The working classes will have to be satisfied with apprenticeships and vocational courses. The last they want us to do is start thinking. Who knows where that could lead to.

 

Indeed.

 

We will create a market in education, closing off one of the last sources of social mobility, giving many who are clever enough the opportunity to better themselves. Essentially if you are born poor, you will not be able to afford to go to a 'good' university. Children will be punished for the lack of affluence of their parents.

[Suffragette1]

Indeed.

 

We will create a market in education, closing off one of the last sources of social mobility, giving many who are clever enough the opportunity to better themselves. Essentially if you are born poor, you will not be able to afford to go to a 'good' university. Children will be punished for the lack of affluence of their parents.

 

It truly would be a regressive step. Let's hope that the Lib Dems and a critical mass of Tories revolt if the coalition even consider implementing such a policy. At the moment, it is purely a recommendation.

 

As you say, this would be an end to social mobility.

[penno]

It truly would be a regressive step. Let's hope that the Lib Dems and a critical mass of Tories revolt if the coalition even consider implementing such a policy. At the moment, it is purely a recommendation.

 

As you say, this would be an end to social mobility.

 

I wouldnt hold your breath waiting for the Tories to rebel. As for the LibDems, who knows what they stand for anymore.

[Dozy]

It truly would be a regressive step. Let's hope that the Lib Dems and a critical mass of Tories revolt if the coalition even consider implementing such a policy. At the moment, it is purely a recommendation.

 

As you say, this would be an end to social mobility.

 

Not that social mobility has been exactly flourishing in the recent past, but if this does get implemented, it will kill it stone dead.

[Nagel]

All the Liberal Democrat MPs signed the NUS 'Funding our Future' pledge that they would not increase university tuition fees if elected. That's all the Liberal Democrats, including Nick Clegg.

 

But I bet they break their promise.

 

 

The only good thing I can see coming out of this is that people will realise there's only a point to going to university if you improve your employment prospects by doing so. A lot of the new plastic universities offering useless courses are going to struggle and hopefully it will save people being sold down the river to do courses they have no hope of reaping any reward from.

[Nagel]

Higher education will become the sole preserve of the rich, who can afford to end up with 50k worth of debt before they even get their first job?;

 

Why? Student loans are available to anyone who gets a university place and you don't have to start paying them back until you start earning over a certain threshold.

 

So any student from a poor background can get a student loan just as easily as a student from a rich family and neither needs to pay a penny till they start earning over the threshold.