I’ll be the first person to admit that I’m not usually overly vocal about my opinions, especially those regarding political matters (hey, I’ve even had to make a new category for it, all shiny, new, and empty). But with the announcement of the imminent election it’s hard not to get involved! Being just 19 it also means this is my first opportunity to get involved, vote, and then if all goes wrong have the right to complain about the government!
Something that I have noticed is that students (and there’s a lot of them here) seem to be concentrating their views around tuition fees. Yes it is quite a major issues which the 3 major parties seem to have different views on, but at the same time its a small part of the bigger picture. A change in policy now is going to stick with us almost certainly for the rest of our lives.
To begin with there’s the (students favourite) Liberal Democrat’s approach of scrapping fee’s altogether. Sounds like a great idea, but what we must realise is that this money comes from somewhere, in this case it will be taxes that students will end up paying anyway. Now there’s no feasible way to work out the numbers on this, but my reckoning that this will be in the form of tax increases (assuming no cuts are made elsewhere), this means that both people who have taken advantage of the education will pay, alongside those who it has had no direct benefit to. Assuming university entry continues to rise this is going to be putting a much larger strain on the economy in the long term. Of course it will advantage some, but by the reasoning that university graduates generally end up with higher incomes than their non-graduate equivalents they will no doubt be on higher tax bands, and over their lifetime pay an equivalent value which is more than the fee’s were for them individually in the first place.
Then there’s Labour, with a 50% university target. Now it doesn’t take an expert to figure out that less than 50% of jobs in the country require graduate level knowledge, this simply seems to devalue the “prestige” of a degree that can make you stand out to employees. The way I see it an investment in your own life, 3 years and around £30K later you come out more qualified (on paper) than your peers that chose a different route. Something which the 50% figure would abolish, or at least deteriorate. Then there is the system in which university is funded, as with many of their other policies an income based system which determines how well you can afford to live the university life based on your parents incomes. For a start I would love to see the effects if the government were to take this approach of being an individual able to vote, make your own decisions in life, be an individual for all intents and purposes, but suddenly you are then linked back to how well your parents have (or haven’t) done in life. Essentially basing your future on your parents past.
The approach seems to be skewed towards given students who have parents on extreme low/high incomes an advantage, giving them all or close to nothing (respectively). The trouble is those in the middle, the “average” of the country, not getting enough to live entirely off student loans & grants, seemingly expected to scrounge off of their parents to make up the difference. Those from lower-income families are able to receive a total of £6403 per year, excluding tuition fees, of which £2906 which is a non-replayable grant, from experience I would quite confidently say this is enough to live a very comfortable student lifestyle, at £533.58 per month an income I’m sure even some families would be delighted to see! Contrasting to this is those from higher-income families, available to whom is a loan of £3564, which seems barely even enough to cover the costs of accommodation, let alone such basic luxuries as “food”, but this is deemed OK as these peoples parents are “able” to pay up the rest. The trouble is the middle ground, these are the people who may get enough to just about cover basic living costs, but barely nothing else, which to me since a Labour government is supposed to support an average working family emits totally the wrong message?
Finally, there’s the Conservatives, have I kept the best till last? Well, maybe, that’s what democracy is all about after all! It is being said that they will increase tuition fees, but if this is complimented by a decrease in funding from the government then technically we would be paying the same anyway, merely the funding would be received from different sources. A key point which they have made, and interests me is the following:
Introduce an early repayment bonus on student loans which are repaid ahead of schedule.
At the moment student loans can be essentially treated as free money, having an interest rate which tracks the rate of inflation means that the amount that is paid back never technically increases, this leads to people avoiding the repayments by paying back the minimum amount, hence causing strain on an already trembling economy. The emphasis here is that this is voluntary, those who are lucky and go straight into good employment out of university would be able to help the country as the whole by providing them back the funds that they were loaned sooner than expected, and rewarded for this (unlike the current system). It is important that this isn’t a compulsory, as there are often genuine reasons why people are unable to pay back their loans. Overall I see this as the most rounded approach which should (in theory) benefit everyone the most
Too many students look past views other than what could benefit them right now, i.e. no tuition fees without considering that this potential change will be with them and affecting them together. It’s also a very key point that the Lib Dem’s plans for example will not even benefit current students (other than those in their final year) as it is a plan which will only be brought in over 6 years, as ever a change that is promised but over a long time-scale.
I don’t think university should be seen as a free ride for a few years, or an easy way of delaying the inevitable of a job in the “real world”, to me it is an opportunity to improve your quality of life in the long run, to hopefully get a better job, and to do what you want to do in life. By reducing or scrapping fees altogether only fuels the views of those who see students as time wasters who are sponging off the “real” workers.
So, that is that, someone out there must read this so please let me know if you think I’m talking a load of crap, or this is the most sense you’ve heard in a long time!
Oh, and bonus points for guessing where my cross will be going on May 6th!