Only a quarter of all graduates will pay off loans
The rest in debt for life as Government's own figures suggest new university fees system is unsustainable.
By Brian Brady
Independent, Sunday, 12 December 2010
Only one in four graduates will pay back the full cost of their tuition fees under the coalition's new system for financing higher education in England.
Internal government figures, seen by The Independent on Sunday, reveal that a small minority of students paying fees of up to £9,000 a year are expected ever to pay them off in full. Ministers believe most graduates will spend their whole working lives making monthly payments to cover their loans and interest – without ever being able to settle their debts.
And they have the audacity to complain about "violence"! Well, they ain't seen nuthin' yet.
Now be fair. The previous administration wanted us all to be lifelong benefit recipients.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right. With potentially 60K debt after a three year course (9K fees 11k living pa), the debt will certainly put paid to any ideas of home ownership or parenthood for an average earner - unless incomes are very low and housing and other benefits kick in, in which case one of the two - parenthood - might just be possible.
The idea of doing an esoteric, no-prospect-of-wealth degree for the sake of learning - say archaeology - will vanish unless the student has rich parents. Seems wrong to me.
But I don't think this can be blamed entirely on conniving, bloodsucking Tory creeps. The killer blows were two related decisions taken by Labour some 13 years back
1) to introduce tuition fees. Up to that point the rationale of university education was that it was in the national interest to have an educated population - and that's why tuition was free. Fees changed the terms of debate. No longer was it in the national interest for X to do French at Durham and Y to do Critical Studies at the University of East London (formerly the Blind Beggar pub, Bethnal Green) - instead it was in the individual's interest to do so, so they could pay. A huge change of the rationale.
2) Blair's idiotic target of getting 50% of the population to uni - he actually attained around 38% - 7 or 8 times more undergrads than 40 years ago
a) that means everyone of or above average intelligence, as compared to the top 5% or so who went only 40 years back. If people with an IQ of 100 can get them, the concept of a uni degree - and the difficulty of the work - has changed.
b) there aren't graduate-level jobs for 50% of the population. We can't all be officers and managers.
c) the cost becomes prohibitive. What's happened up to now is that unis have cut the amount they're spending compared with what they'd have spent 40 years back. My niece only has lectures 2 days a week - she's meant to be educating herself the rest of the time.
c) is why they're increasing tuition fees - so that the unis can afford better teaching and the govt doesn't spend so much. It was an overhead they could bear when only 5% went...
The chances of changing this decision by riots on the streets are IMHO zero, unless a miracle prises the Lib Dem ministers away from the red boxes.
I don't what could make you imagine that my post amounts to a defence of the Nu-Labour Party.
ReplyDeleteprices have tended to double every ten years - and it seems unlikely that inflation will be less than this for the next ten years.
ReplyDeleteIn ten years time an office cleaner working thirty hours a week will be earning £21,000 - and will be eligible to pay back their tuition fees.
If anything, I feel worse for kids studying non-humanist business degrees, of limited interest and of limited practical use for earning s reasonable wage.
I find it dizzying that a properly researched book about Shakespeare, or the Gordon riots may never again be written by someone from a working class background.
the other thing New Labour did was to treat eighteen year old adults as dependents of their families, rather than as citizens in their own right - which was a real step away from anything like liberalism
ReplyDelete"a properly researched book about Shakespeare, or the Gordon riots may never again be written by someone from a working class background"
... at least not in England