University Equals Debt.
By Kennice Morrison
Have you ever heard the joke about the students who had to pay £10,000 for their tuitions fees for university? Of course you have. It has been pasted all over the news this year that university tuitions fees will be going up.
In 2006, Education Correspondent for the Guardian, Matthew Taylor predicted that by 2010, tuition fees for UK universities will be up to £5000. Now in 2010, it seems that Matthew’s predictions were true. It has been stated that the tuition fees will be higher for university students.
This kind of annoys me. As a university student, I know how hard it is to get into university, not to mention find the money to pay for my tuition. Not only do we have to deal with the rising cost of tuition fees, we have to deal with Student Finance, who constantly messed up the applications of the thousands of students who apply for their financial aid in 2009.
With the sudden rise in tuition fees, it seems that the concern is that this will put middle class and working class students off of going into further education. This is completely understandable. The idea that you would be pushing yourself towards something that is meant to make your life better only to leave with thousands of pounds worth of debt before you even started working is a very daunting concept to think about. I, myself have had these worries, especially when I am already £14,000 in the red with only 2 years under my belt.
Nicholas Di-Maria is applying to Middlesex University in London and voices his worries about the rising fees. “I believe that the rise in tuition fees is a disgrace. Students are struggling as it is and by raising the fee, the government is just putting more pressure on their shoulders. I am taking a year out of university to work because of the upcoming rise. The government needs to realise that the only people who are profiting from it is them.” Nicholas stated that he had hesitations about going to university again because of the debt would have hanging over him in the future and since he already did one year in university the year before, he already has debt hanging over him. He also voiced an angering concern that has affected many students all over the country, “I agree 100% that Student Finance would contribute to potential students backing away from university. I have had so many problems with them; I didn’t get my finances because they completely missed up my paper work. I think that students would feel like it’s too much hassle because Student Finance is meant to be making things easier and they are making it harder.”
What gets under my skin is the fact that we are pushed towards university, not only by our parents but by our society. The idea that has been placed upon us is to have a better life, we must go to university. If we don’t then we are going to end up in a dead end job. How are we suppose to aim for university if it is going to put us out of pocket before we’ve even have a chance to accept our dream jobs? It annoys me that to go to university, future students will have to either have rich parents or have to work their butts off to pay for an education that should be free. University is meant to be a way of making someone’s life better, or so we are told, so why do we have to pay thousands upon thousands of pounds for it? We never had to do that with primary or secondary school.
Recently I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who took the other path into achieving his dream job. 20-year-old James Preston left college and went straight into the working scene and is now an IT Support Technician in Oxford. He argued that while many people are arguing that a university education should be free, the decrease in potential university students would be a good thing. James stated that some employers do not look at what degrees an applicant has but the experience, which is why many graduates are refused jobs when they leave university. This is true to some degree; we are told once at university that work experience and work placement would help us in the long run. Nevertheless, I thought about what James said and brought it to my very opinionated housemate who also attends my University. Thomas Hooper, 21, is an International Relations major at Nottingham Trent. He argued against James’ statement saying that, “Whilst I disagree that university is pointless, as a centre of academia and for those who want to work in a certain area it is invaluable. I agree that for many people it is not the way. I believe that the increase in tuition fees would help to reduce the number of waster students who are just leeching off of the system.”
I agree with both James and Thomas’ opinions, while experience is very valuable within life and society, university is also important, and a lot of employers not only look at the experience you have to but the kind of degree you have. I don’t think anyone should be put off of going to university, not everyone is going to university to “leech” off the system, and while the rise in tuition fees might handle that, those who are truly going there to learn something are being hurt by this as well.
William Lowe Bryan once argued that Education is one of the few things that people are willing for pay for but not get. Just because many of us are willing to pay for it, does not enough have the government can take the mick.
Image: www.itpaystowatch.co.uk