University Fees

University Fees - are they making higher education a privilege only the affluent can afford?

Should education be free? Is education a right (indeed a human right) or is it a privilege? If education does indeed, so the old philosophy says, set you free, should you have to pay for this freedom.

It`s only relatively recently that the realms of higher education have been available to everyone. Before the second world war it was mostly families of affluence who sent their children to university. When I was a student the only criteria was your academic ability: If you can make the grade, you gain admittance. Certainly nothing should hold any student back but their own intellect. Of course those very abilities may well depend on the primary and secondary schools they have attended. Even the quality of nurseries varies widely, as research conducted by the University of Oxford, and published by the Nuffield Foundation in 2014, has shown. This study pointed out that there is a distinct `nursery gap.` in areas of differing affluence. Private and voluntary (not-for-profit) nurseries and preschools situated in disadvantaged areas, were seen to be of considerably lower quality than those catering to children in more advantaged areas. The report suggested the main reason for this was that more teachers were applying to the nurseries and schools in the affluent areas, and that these schools could offer a better wage; and with more applicants the schools could select the teachers they thought were best suited, while being able to employ more, and so keep class sizes down.

University tuition fees were introduced by the Labor government back in 1998. By today`s standards the charges seem very modest - around 1000 a year for most subjects, but there was a huge uproar at the time. The annual fee of 1000 was cited as being a quarter of the cost of the student`s education. The fees were dependant upon parental income, with students from lower income families being exempt form the charge, and were index linked with inflation, reaching 1225 in 2007 08. Maintenance grants, which had been introduced to help cover the costs of students` living fees, were replaced by student loans. The student Loans company had to operate within very strict parameters - any company offering large sums to students (many of whom were away from home for the first time, and could easily be induced to borrow more than was wise) had to be highly regulated. The funds lent wouldn`t have to be repaid until the borrowers were in employment, and earning over a certain amount.

The introduction of student fees in 1998 was met with much public outcry - Former Labour education secretary Ted Short said publicly that he was ashamed to be a member of the Labor party; and Ken Livingstone (just prior to him becoming London Mayer in 2000) accused education ministers of `whipping away a ladder of opportunity which they themselves had climbed.` Though largely unreported many universities wanted to raise the tuition fees - petitioning representatives for a `United States-style` system, which would allow them to charge whatever the `market will bear.`

Up until 2010 there was a cap on what universities could charge for tuition - at that point it had reached 3,290. In the October of 2010 The Browne review into the future of Higher Education Funding published a document entitled `Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education,` that would soon allow fees to soar upwards. While the document was replete was laudable statements such as `Everyone who has the potential should be able to benefit from Higher Education,` and `No-one should have to pay until they start work,` it also proposed the cap should be removed. As quickly as Novemeber of 2010 the government had reached a general agreement that annual fees of 9000 should be introduced, with interest being charged at 2.2% plus inflation. The government finally opted for a tapered rate, dependent on income, which would rise as high as 3%.

In the 2015 budget George Osbourne announced that tuition fees, capped at 9000 since 2012, would be index linked to inflation, (and so rising) from the 2017-18 academic year onwards. A fee of 9,250 is now the typical annual charge.

Are these fees dissuading people from attending university, or are they necessary to fund the higher education system. I must confess that to me they look astronomical. I was lucky enough to attend university before any charges existed, and was able to get by on my student loans. I fear that there will be many families who simply cant afford the 30,000 it will cost to put a child through university - and large families may well be required to take out a second mortgage to ensure all their children are able to go to university.