As a result of the General Election, the subject of tuition fees has once again reared its ugly head.
Many constituencies, including Sheffield Central and Sheffield Hallam, are occupied mainly by students and our political hopefuls seem to think that by promising to lower fees, we will be wooed into voting for them.
Goodness knows where they got that idea from.
As if any current students would’ve dragged themselves out of bed on election day just to vote for someone who promises to lower fees, when we’re already plagued by thousands of pounds of debt.
And in any case, abandoning tuition fees just won’t work.
According to a recent article in The Telegraph, under a Liberal Democrat government, students could look forward to a debt-free ride throughout university.
Should Mr Clegg have won the election, each student can go through the uni experience safe in the knowledge that there will be no student loans to pay back after graduation.
This is all well and good but I’m left to wonder exactly how this is meant to work.
If students are allowed a free ride through university, someone has to bear the costs that come with getting a degree.
If a student doesn’t splash his own cash on a kebab from Aslan’s after a night at the Union and a cab back to Crookes, whose cash will he fritter away instead?
With over 300,000 students attending university each year, we can’t expect the government to cough up cash each time someone decides they’d prefer to spend three years getting pissed rather than facing the inevitable dole queue.
We’d all love to get a degree and pay nothing at the end of it but it isn’t a realistic option. Universities need funding to pay staff salaries and to keep up the standard of education.
As it is, the government is already trying to ensure as many people as possible are given the opportunity to attend university, with everything from loans with tiny interest rates to grants that aren’t repayable.
Scrapping tuition fees will only cause problems.
Money that should be spent reviving our economy and getting us out of the recession will go towards paying for students to go to university.
Maybe it’s time British parents start doing what American parents do and begin putting some money aside each year to fund their children’s dreams of a higher education.
The benefits of attending university nearly always outweigh the financial costs that are incurred.
And even if education is the right of every citizen, it is not reasonable to expect the government to pay for the degree of every single student who decides to fly the nest and live it large in London or Loughborough.
British students need to get some perspective. Compared to our American counterparts who pay tuition fees of anything from $10,000 to $30,000 a year, I think we’re getting a pretty good deal.
Sade Olaniyi
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