The National Union of Students (NUS) has published a report looking into routes to shift the financial burden of higher education from individual students to public funding. The report outlines ways to start the debate on higher education between politicians, vice chancellors and students.
It also highlights that the proportion of graduates failing to pay back student loans means that the Treasury is not receiving any financial rewards from the decision to triple tuition fees made in 2011. It recommends a system of collective public investment through progressive taxation to replace tuition fees.
England’s tuition fee and repayment system has been called ‘the worst of both worlds’
Megan Dunn, NUS Vice President said, “Forcing debt onto students as a way of funding universities is an experiment that has failed not just students, but our country. Politicians need to recognise that we will only achieve a sustainable higher education funding system if we abandon the discredited regime of sky-high fees and debts altogether”.
England’s tuition fee and repayment system has been called ‘the worst of both worlds’ in a study by The Higher Education Commission.
The study argues that government cuts to teaching grants have resulted in a need to write off significant levels of student debt and universities are therefore losing out within the current system.
The NUS’ report is a step in the right direction
Owen Morris, a first year business management student, commented, “It’s hard to see the point of tripling tuition fees, if the government aren’t gaining anything from it then all it’s doing putting people off going to university.”
Helen, a third year history student told Impact: “The NUS’ report is a step in the right direction. However, it does seem odd that they’ve released this report just after they pulled support for the Free Education demonstration”.
The study by the Higher Education Commission suggests a range of alternative measures to address this, such as lowering tuition fees to £6,000, or the introduction of a progressive graduate tax, although they admit that this would have both positive and negative consequences.
The commission ultimately questions the fact the average graduate earners will are being charged at a rate which they ‘will not be able to pay back’.
Connor Higgs and Hannah Eves
Image: Chris Ison, Press Association
If anyone wants to campaign around the issue of Free Education at Uni of Nottingham please join the New Campaigns and Democracy Group: UoN Free Education.
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