18 months on, was the decision to raise the tuitition fee cap good or bad?

Poll

Was the tuition Fee cap rise beneficial to Students

The new report published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank report on HE funding basically states that it has increased uni funding by 25%, reduced the cost to the tax payer by 5% but increased uncertainty around long-term funding costs for the government. Personally I think there is another benefit - encouraging students to study hard and choose valuable courses!

(Overview here: http://sturents.com/news/post/2014/04/24/higher-education-funding-at-the-expense-of-certainty/149/)

Reply 1

username33685

11

Yes I think it was ultimately good for all the reasons you mentioned, though I think that in granting concessions to the Lib Dems the government ended up nullifying many of the positive effects of the fee cap rise.

The salary you need before you start paying back the loans is far too high, meaning not enough graduates are going to pay back the full amount of their loans, undermining the long-term aim of the policy to reduce the contribution of the taxpayer to higher-education. Taxpayers are instead bailing out defaulted student loans, rather than providing direct funding to higher education. We'll have to wait to see in the long run whether the cost of the former outstrips that of the latter to assess whether there was actually any point in going through all this.

Reply 2

tmw25

OP

Agree with that. An economist would likely argue that there should be no threshold below which you don't have to repay. Then a degree's worth is truely priced by society.

Reply 3

llys

17

I think the whole premise of it is wrong. University education should not be funded by students or by the tax payer - it should be funded by business. From that point of view I think that increasing tuition fees has had this positive effect: that more businesses are now sponsoring students. Perhaps the current situation can act as a transition towards a situation (in the far future) where most students are sponsored through a degree by their employers, and only those students who cannot get sponsorship (because they are too stupid) must self-fund.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 4

james22

16

Original post by llys

I think the whole premise of it is wrong. University education should not be funded by students or by the tax payer - it should be funded by business. From that point of view I think that increasing tuition fees has had this positive effect: that more businesses are now sponsoring students. Perhaps the current situation can act as a transition towards a situation (in the far future) where most students are sponsored through a degree by their employers, and only those students who cannot get sponsorship (because they are too stupid) must self-fund.

That is just about the worst idea I have ever heard for how to fund students through university. Not many buissnesses can afford to sponser students, and even then they can often only fund a few. It also means that the student has to know what they want to do 3 years before and they must committ to it for that 3 years plus however long they would need to be in that job for. There would be far fewer people at university if this happened.

Reply 5

tmw25

OP

Most businesses couldnt afford it (only large corporates) but it would stop people pursuing degrees in Media Studies/Film studies that add little long term value to the student (even if they find it interesting)

Reply 6

SilverstarDJ

18

Some countries in Europe let their nationals study for FREE and yet the UK charges it's students £9/year. A lot of students won't repay their loan at all - which means it is more like an additional "graduate tax" for 30 years which I think is unfair considering many graduates have a lot to offer to society in general.

18 months on, was the decision to raise the tuitition fee cap good or bad?

Was the tuition Fee cap rise beneficial to Students

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you