TUESDAY morning saw the highly-anticipated news of Lord Browne’s report into higher education fees. With it, there is very grim news for all students, both current and prospective who are thinking of university in their future careers.
If the coalition government goes ahead with Browne’s recommendation, students will be paying upto £6,000 a year to study at university. Currently, the fee is capped at £3,290 a year. Browne, a former chief executive of BP wants the current system to be replaced with a much easier format. However, it now means that students could be finishing their degree in debt of more than £30,000. The interest rates on student loans are also set to rise, from 1.5% to 2.2%. To compensate these changes, Browne also wants to increase the salary threshold, so students begin paying back their loans, when they start earning £21,000 a year, rather than the current £15,000 scheme which is in place now. It is by far the biggest shake-up in education policies for over two decades.
His report could cause a major rift in the current coalition partnership. The Conservative party are certainly for the idea, but David Cameron will be desperate for the Liberal Democrats to back the proposal through parliament. In the lead-up to the General Election, both Nick Clegg and Vince Cable were totally against a rise in tuition fees, making it one of their key pledges in their election manifesto. The news has angered the president of the NUS (National Union of Students), Aaron Porter; "Lord Browne is clearly dangerously out of touch with the pressures faced by students and their families. "The Government must reject proposals that would recklessly undermine our future by ending the notion of public higher education."
Compromises need to be made by all parties; even David Cameron said that in his first Downing Street media conference on Monday. However, students are bound to rally around the expected rises, and many will question the point of university, especially if they become saddled in thousands of pounds of debt and with no guarantee of a decent job after graduation, especially in the tighter economic climate we live in today. Plus, universities may struggle to get the intake required, especially if students start becoming scared to pay such ridiculous amounts of money. Standards will need to rise in all universities; otherwise these changes simply can’t go through.
This isn’t the last we’ve heard of tuition fees. It is bound to be a major topic point throughout the autumn.
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