How should uni tuition be funded?

Poll

How should university tuition be funded?

shooks

TSR Community Staff

Someone has to pay for the cost of university tuition, but who should it be?

Have your say in the poll. :smile:

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

abruiseonthesky

Should be funded through taxes. Before anyone jumps on the 'oh but what about those who don't go to uni and are then paying for others' - I also think vocational courses should be tax-payer funded (which, actually, they often are - post-16 courses are usually at colleges, which are free)

Reply 2

ivybridge

People themselves. The government should probably try and decrease the tuition but should foot the bill because they can barely fund other things which are, I suppose, more important; i.e. the NHS.

Public.

I think that maybe the fees should just go down but maybe as well they can do a system where if/when your working they don't automatically take their debts from your bank account which is something they currently do i believe. like they can set a time so for example maximum 20 years to pay back so at least then your wages/money is not all going in one big chunk.
Then it will be something like there are 365 days in a year so for 20 years that's 7300 months so you basically have a 3 year degree which is £27,000 in total (£9000 per year) that's 27,000 ÷ 7300 months= roughly £3.70 a month so its really convenient like it wont be affecting your salary hardly ^_^

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 5

Anna Schoon

Original post by Salwachemi

If only... you're forgetting the interest rate in your calculations! If you have a maintenance loan as well, you're looking at a combined interest rate of about 5% - which is ten times the bank rate. Interest starts accumulating in your first year at university, so by the time you are ready to start paying it back, you already owe more than you actually borrowed.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 6

Speckle

Either fully tax-payer funded, which is probably unreasonable today given the number of people unnecessarily going to uniersity.

Or an option not on the poll. Students pay back the loan, not based on income but like any other loan. Ideally a few years grace period after graduation to settle down and find a job.

Reply 7

llys

You missed out "Business".

Reply 8

User1333171

I think there needs to be an overhaul of the university system. The reason that funding courses is such a burden for the government right now is that so many people are going to university even if they're not particularly interested in academic study. We're sold a university experience that often focusses on partying and getting your degree as something on the side - while government funding is available to everyone, people just see university as the step after A levels and go for it without really thinking about it. I think we need more vocational courses and apprenticeships that are actively encouraged, which would mean that people were getting training relevant to their interests and skills and then governments could fund university courses for people who really need a degree for their chosen career.

I'm not sure I could get on board with a completely free university education, because I see that the money has to come from somewhere, but if less people went to university there could be a bigger subsidy and then perhaps a graduate tax which means the people who received a uni education would be responsible for putting money back into the system. And if people were only going down the degree route if they had academic interests and a professional career in mind they'd be more likely to earn above the threshold where you have to pay something towards your loans. At the moment a lot of people are getting a free uni education because they never have to pay back their loans.

Apprenticeships and vocational courses would be targeted to people whose skills were more practical and those people would end up being paid while training because they'd actually be working a job, which would mean less people with debt hanging over them and a more balanced workforce (when everyone's been to uni everyone ends up with the same/similar skills, which isn't what the workforce needs).

Reply 9

Tiger Rag

Keep the current system. You already get some 13 years of free education. And it's not as if you come out of uni and are expected to pay it back straight away, regardless of your situation.

Reply 10

viddy9

Keep the current system of students paying back loans according to their income, but bring back maintenance grants. The government's scrapping of the maintenance grant was a big mistake.

Tuition fees organised in this way are a good way to reduce inequality without impacting on economic growth, because the highest earners after graduation pay more back, so it's essentially a graduate tax on high earners.

Reply 11

DanB1991

Tbh while I used to believe that student should pay for their tuition at some stage.... Chomsky convinced me that free education is a benefit to all.... in matter of fact the claims that free university education is laughable when compared to other countries.

That being said, those from incomes over a certain amount (much higher than atm) should still have to pay.... it's similar to the way I'm confused why those who can afford private healthcare often refuse to do so, with cuts for the money they've paid via tax.

Reply 12

Clearing and Applications Advisor

I'd like to see the MPs deciding on student funding recognise that *maybe* the people who got their university education for free (with grants and at one point eligible for housing benefit and income support over the holidays) - which generally includes themselves - should repay some of the benefit they got from their education.

Rather than the burden of costs falling either entirely on the current/future recipients or on the public purse as a whole a one off wealth tax on graduates who went through the system before fees were introduced who are now reaping the benefits financially (ie only applicable to people over a certain level of assets/income) could set up a funding pot of investments that could subsidise university education for decades ahead.

Reply 13

That Bearded Man

We should only be offering degrees that offer employability, we should be cutting the number of places, creating more training schemes and thus reducing the tuition fee costs.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 14

Inazuma

It should be full loans available to everyone, payable back on basis like it currently is - above 21k etc.

Absolutely no to """free""" uni. No to grants as well, highly unequal burden was put on the middle-income students from that. I'm not certain whether the situation has improved for them with recent changes, I've heard mixed things - but it should be full loan to all, not based on income.

I'm not willing to pay extortionately higher taxes for people to doss around at uni spending cash willy nilly while "studying" courses they will never use.
It makes it incredibly unfair.

Uni is not a right, it is a choice, and those who choose to pursue it ought to bear the burden. There are plenty of other options, and uni is not the "next step", it is one of a variety, and shouldn't be funded as if it's compulsory.
If anything, more funding (where possible within budget), should be put into vocational courses and apprenticeships. (As our govt. actually has)
Also, It has been proven to have no effect on anyone going to uni too (fee rises), so cannot see anything but positives.

Reply 15

Salwachemi

Original post by Anna Schoon

Your CircumstancesInterest RateWhilst studying and until the April after leaving the courseRPI, plus 3% (3.9% for 2015/16)If you were on a short course or finished your course early and should have come into repayment before April 2016*RPI, plus 3% (3.9% for 2015/16) until the April after you leave your course, then RPI (0.9%) only until April 2016If you come into repayment from April 2016Variable rate dependent upon income. RPI (0.9%) where income is £21,000 or less, rising on a sliding scale up to RPI+3% (3.9%) where income is £41,000 or moreIf you don't respond to SLC's requests for information or evidenceRPI plus 3% will be applied to your loan, whatever your income, until SLC have all the information they need so it will still not heavily affect the rates.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 16

Drewski

First, make degrees cost what they actually cost the university to put on.

There's no way in hell that an English lit course where the students get much less than 10 contact hours and next to no expenditure on materials should cost the same as an engineering course with close to 40 contact hours a week, lab sessions, huge materials and technology requirement.

Then, have tax payer money subsidise some of the bill - the whole of society benefits from having educated people amongst it. But only have this scheme for those who work in the country after getting their degree, so make it reverse. Ie, you pay back your (interest free) student loan in the current way, but when you get down to x amount left, it's written off.

Reply 17

TheGreatPumpkin

It depends on the course and the careers it can lead to. Media studies and similar subjects should cost £10000 per annum because it's useless, humanities subjects, like history and economics, as well as those that lead to industrial jobs, such as chemical and civil engineering, should be have a reduced cost of about £6000 as they should lead to good jobs. Public service degrees such as medicine, midwifery and nursing should be completely free.

Reply 18

elen90

In an ideal world I'd like for it to be entirely publicly funded.

Realistically, I think it's reasonable to demand lowered fees and increased public spending towards university education.

Reply 19

davahna

In my own personal opinion, i think that the Government should lower the tuition fees to get into University. I think £9000 per year is absurd. Think about the individuals who's parents income is not adequate, and they want their child to go to Uni but the Government is preventing those from lower-class backgrounds to get to where they want. If the Government lowered the tuition fees, then he we see more individuals wanting to go to University, instead of doing Apprenticeships that don't really get them anywhere in life. The Government is alienating those who don't have as much money as the middle class workers, and it's not fair, what happened to all this Equal Opportunity Act?