This has been in the news a lot over the past few weeks. The government is going to vote to increase university fees to £9,000. Students have been very upset by this as it will mean they are in a very high amount of debt when they leave uni, or higher than they already do. I am not a student and never have been so this topic will be viewed as a complete outsider.
Quick history of my education, went to school, went on to college and gained 3 A-levels. I was accepted at the local university but decided to defer my place for a year (remember this as it will be prominent later in the blog). After that year the uni wrote to say, "Hey! uni starting soon, ya coming?" My reply to that was no as I was earning a very nice sum of money from my full time job at that time.
Anyway, This countries is economy is fucked right now. There is some growth stemming from the recession but this is very small so the new government are having to scrap money from whatever source is possible. Education is a very important part of society and I completely agree with the fact that everyone deserves a good one. However, I dont see uni being a complete necessity, I have friends with degrees who are not in great jobs or anywhere near what they wished to be doing. But, I do respect people who wish to further their knowledge in whatever field they wish to.
So the coalition decided that they could gain money by increasing course fees upto £9,300, a great idea in my opinion and then we will see how they will help less off families etc.
Unfortuneatly not everyone shared my opinion of letting this run its course and allowing the government to outline what they were planning on doing.
This has lead to a number of protests across the country and, disgustingly, violent riots, mainly in London. There is absolutely no need for violence in this instance. I dont care how upset you are about this offered solution to our National debt, noone should ever resort to violence. Admittedly it seems that a lot of the violence has been from thugs and aimed at police, rather than students just waving banners and chanting outside of official buildings. And things turned very ugly on Thursday as the vote took place, resulting in a Yes to increasing fees, althought by a much smaller margin than the government would have liked. 3 government officials even resigned from their posts to show their feelings over this policy.
The Union Jack flag hanging from the Cenotaph was swung from by one student, this individual turned out to be the son of Pink Floyd star, Dave Gilmour. Charlie Gilmour has apologised for his actions saying he did not realise it was the Cenotaph. Ummm, Charlie, your studying History!!! The statue of Winston Churchill was urinated on. And Prince Charles and Camillas car was attacked en route throught the city. 3 acts which are absolutely disgraceful for any member of public to be comitting.
But to get back onto the point, fees are going up, so I guess that means every single uni course now costs £9,300 yes?
NO! If people had listened for 2 minutes instead of just whining immediately they would know the facts.
This policy allows universities to increase course fees up to £9,300 if they wish to. One of my friends works at the local university, who are constructing new buildings at this time. However, it is unlikely they will increase their fees as all of this work has already been paid for so the uni doesnt need to raise extra money (unless they want to be greedy).
The fees will only apply to new students (whenever the increase bill is pushed through). So anyone at uni now can just shrug their shoulders and get on with their lives. Remember I deferred my place for a year? During this time the previous government introduced Top-up fees, I was exempt from this if I had taken my place as I had already been accepted. I dont think there were any riots or defacing of public property when this price increase happened.
Students are worried about finishing uni with more debt, this is true. However, at the moment when you leave uni you do not pay anything back until you are in a job with a minimum salary of £15,000 pa. and even then it is a very minute part of your paycheck that goes. If you take a course thats fees have increased to the £9,000 mark you will not pay anything until your minimum annual wage is £21,000 and again it will be a miniscule amount.
Low income families will have a lot of help as they currently do, likely to be that they dont pay back very much of their fees. Such as the maintenance grants poorer students receive now.
As a summary, this country needs money. Everyone needs to sacrifice something and students need to realise that this is not victimising them, just a small solution to getting this country back on its feet.
The government seem to have given it a lot of thought and have pledged to help out where they can; low income families, rising the payback wage etc.
I understand the knee jerk reaction to be angry that the government are looking to hike prices up but it is necessary. In January, VAT will rise to 20% which will hurt everyone but all we can do is live with it. Carry on and get on with life.
This is a very long blog for a first outing and I think I've written everything I wanted to. So I hope you enjoyed it and I welcome any feedback.
No comments:
Post a Comment