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Going to university used to be simple.
If
you had the right grades then, either you, your parents or your
local loan authority gave £1,100 to your chosen university
for tuition fees. You then took out a loan for livings costs and
set off.
What
do you think of top-up fees?
But,
now the government is considering top-up fees
or a graduate tax, a system where students pay extra fees back after
their course has finished.
Undergraduates
already have to pay annual tuition fees of up to £1,100 at
all universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It
is feared that increasing these costs will deter poorer students
from entering higher education.
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Top-up fees are totally unacceptable.
A
child should have access to education on the basis of what
they can achieve not what they can afford.
There
is already a huge gap between the number of working class
and middle class students at Oxbridge and top-up fees only
widen the divide.
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| Raksha
McCann, parent |
The
proposed payment scheme is meant to become clear later this month
when the government finally releases its proposals.
However,
the top-up fees have also raised the concern about the simplistic
relationship between education and earnings.
A large number of graduates tend to take up comparitively low paid
jobs because they believe in what they are doing.
The top-up fees may encourage people to only
take up well-paying jobs as this will be the only way they can reduce
their debts quickly.
Research
by the NUS has estimated that the cost of going to university is
now as high as £40,000 per head.
Top-up
fees, according to the The Oxford Student, put this figure as high
as £60,000 at elite universities like Oxford University.
Read
below other people's comments on university top-up fees:
It is dismaying that so many opinionated students quote the
age old socialist mantra of education is a right not a priviledge.
They seem to forget that it is the taxpayer, ie not them, who
fork out for them to get wonderfull graduate education.
I failed to complete my degree, and to be totally honest, it's
done me no harm, I'm MD of an internationally involved manufacturing
company, and that before i was 30, so i don't think that hundereds
of graduates in media studies or humanities or classics or some
dead foriegn language actually benfits the rest of the population
apart from the removal of vast sums of tax payers money.
Maybe if the students agreed to work through their dgrees and
support themselves, there wouldn't be the low success rate or
second rate qualifications.
Then maybe with all the money left, the firefighters could have
the 40% pay rise they deserve when compared with the life saving
skills of the average oxford student. |
| Toby
barton, Bicester |
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How can the Government be so two faced? University for all OR
you will have to pay more - its not possible to have both. If
this happens, then Universities will definitely have more demands
made on them by parents i.e. why a three year course when the
work appears to fit into two years, more explanation of days
missed by tutors, and more reporting/accountability to parents.
Are they prepared for that? |
| Pat
Baskerville, Letchworth Garden City |
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We've
had a version of this system, here in Australia for some time
now and it does NOT work! Universities here are cutting back
on staff numbers and are still looking for added funding and
student numbers are down.
I
attend a uni as a mature-age part-time student and I've seen
it all first hand over these past seven odd years! The number
of courses offered has decreased as well as entire departments
closing down.
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| Jennifer,
Melbourne Australia |
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Top-up fees are being justified by a funding crisis in higher
education. What funding crisis?
18
months ago, universities increased their pay offer by 50%,
in fact they even paid for staff to strike (even though this
was taxpayers money).
Many
university staff are millionaires. Graduate and overseas students
pay the full cost and more for their courses. Where has this
money gone?
Is
it not time that universities 'modernised' and the areas where
they squander public money be addressed. Our hospitals and
schools cannot dip into the public purse any time they please,
why should universities. Doesn't this need to be done before
increasing fees without any clear basis or justification?
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| Philip
Stanmore, Kidlington |
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If top-up fees are introduced, then the government can wave
goodbye to its 50% attendance target.
The
only thing that top up fees will achieve will be to create
a two-tier education system and this so-called UK Ivy League,
based on elitist principles that favour the rich and privileged.
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| Jo
Salmon, Wales |
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Here
at Oxford, officials are being extremely evasive about whether
they will introduce top-up fees or how much these fees will
be.
Many
of us may have to leave as we will be unable to afford these
fees, means tested or not.
The
government is in danger of making the old Oxbridge stereotypes
come true by creating universities for the rich. I can see
why so many governments need to charge fees - of the government
will not make more funding available soon, many institutions
will be bankrupt.
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| AJR,
Oxford University |
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Listen to the protest in Oxford
