Is the university system in this country right?

Should those of us from families which aren't vastly wealthy be forced to become debt-monkies in the region of £50,000 from the second we finish our degrees? This inevitably leads to mental health issues, depression, even suicide. From £27,000 to £50,000 to get something which is, well, truth be told, compulsory in modern society. Look at a more developed society with a greater HDI than Britain, e.g Sweden or Denmark which have free university - surely this is better than £50,000 debt.

Depression and suicide from debt that is only payable in very small installments, and only once you're earning a certain wage? Really?

Look at all their taxes.

The fact is that those people don't mind paying, and their society is more successful than ours.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/nov/16/sweden-tax-burden-welfare

Should those of us from families which aren't vastly wealthy be forced to become debt-monkies in the region of £50,000 from the second we finish our degrees? This inevitably leads to mental health issues, depression, even suicide. From £27,000 to £50,000 to get something which is, well, truth be told, compulsory in modern society. Look at a more developed society with a greater HDI than Britain, e.g Sweden or Denmark which have free university - surely this is better than £50,000 debt.

Should those of us from families which aren't vastly wealthy be forced to become debt-monkies in the region of £50,000 from the second we finish our degrees? This inevitably leads to mental health issues, depression, even suicide. From £27,000 to £50,000 to get something which is, well, truth be told, compulsory in modern society. Look at a more developed society with a greater HDI than Britain, e.g Sweden or Denmark which have free university - surely this is better than £50,000 debt.

Look at all their taxes.

The Government can sugarcoat the repayments scheme as much as they want, but the hard fact remains that students are now racking up humungous debts that students of the past never had to deal with. It's no wonder universities are having to lower their expectations in order to tempt students nowadays. Maintenance loans have to paid off as well, of course, so the money really does add up to a fortune.

'Debt-monkies'.

After taking out extremely favourable loans that you pay back at a very slow rate and that many people won't finish paying back at all.




Quite.




You know the system actually became more progressive with the rise in tuition fees, right? As a matter of bottom-line reality, according to the IFS, the 30% of graduates with the lowest earnings will pay less under the tuition fee 'increase', as a result of the changes to the terms of student loans. Furthermore, UCAS figures show large increases in entries by students from poorer backgrounds to universities charging the full £9000 following the rise in tuition fees.

As most students in England and Wales will agree, tuition fees are very disappointing and arguably unfair given that university always used to be free up until 1998 - and still is in countries like Scotland and Denmark. However, what makes tuition fees a real farce is how extortionately expensive they are. I think students were just about prepared to accept £1,000-3,000 p/year fees, but the rise to £9,000 is a disgrace and shows the Government's total lack of commitment to students of the present and future. I think the Lib Dems have burnt their bridges with students for many years to come given the breakage of their 2010 manifesto pledge to students in which stated they would vote against all increases in tuition fees.
The Government can sugarcoat the repayments scheme as much as they want, but the hard fact remains that students are now racking up humungous debts that students of the past never had to deal with. It's no wonder universities are having to lower their expectations in order to tempt students nowadays. Maintenance loans have to paid off as well, of course, so the money really does add up to a fortune.

It's nice to see Germany recently abolished university fees last month. I would like to be optimistic that the UK would follow suit, but I would be naive to think we'll be getting rid of, or even lowering, tuition fees any time soon.

Yes, I'm sure that's correlated.