1. the amount you can charge your clients is fixed
2. the number of clients you can take on is fixed
3. you have to take on a certain number of clients that you’d make a loss on
How this is sustainable is beyond my imagination. If this goes on for another 5 years, we will see cuts to staff, then cuts to STEM departments (because they cost a hell lot more than £9,250), and finally going bankrupt and destroying one of UK’s most important export and our economy in the process.
trmetroidmaniac on
Very little of substance being said here. Fee rises are unpopular, but needed, and there’s going to be some nonspecific reform. Great.
imminentmailing463 on
Or, you need to increase public funding. Which would also be unpalatable. Or increase student immigration. Which would also be unpalatable.
There are no easy, popular options here.
Ok-Double-3347 on
Raising tuition fees would be a nightmare for students already struggling with housing costs. Fixing housing w/
Mourloz on
There are alternatives, which make much more sense than burdening young people with debt.
Its hard to justify rises when the Scottish are sitting on totally fre uni just over the border. Solution is to charge more for internationals, that should go up slightly above inflation and be totally free market to allow places like Oxford to charge north of 60k.
Then you subsidise where needed.
Likely also need to see 40 or so utter dross universities, Liverpool Hope for example, go in the bin.
wondercaliban on
I worked at a Russell group uni 10 years ago, there were constant rounds of redundancies then as well as since then. Can only imagine it will get worse.
Mtarfa102 on
That’s something, but if they don’t replace the system ASAP, it’s going to keep falling apart.
Absurd that our governments treat higher education with such disdain and afterthought when it’s one of the few areas we genuinely excel at. Probably something to do with it involving young people (how dare young people have a good life!)
Meu_14 on
I would have no problem at all about them charging more. So long as the gov provide INTEREST FREE loans for students to go. It’s the interest that kills you.
Optimaldeath on
I wonder if Labour is fine with letting the universities fail as a means to (slightly) resolve the primary/secondary education hiring crisis?
joehighlord on
To be fair, does being straddled with 100k of unpayable debt make any difference to the standard 60k of unpayable debt?
Terrible-Group-9602 on
There are far too many universities, many offering poor quality teaching and degrees that aren’t attractive to employers. Complaints from students about the quality of education are at a record level.
The funding solution isn’t to import lots of foreign students to prop up such universities, it’s to rationalise the sector so there are fewer, higher quality universities.
SenatorBiff on
Introducing fees was short sighted in the first place. You provide education to your populace so that you have an educated and skilled workforce, and your companies can have access to that workforce to create wealth and innovative research, as a benefit to the overall economy. It’s an investment. We’ve re-cast it as a cost that society doesn’t want to pay, without realising it impoverishes us over the longer term. But that is very much the neoliberal way; appreciating the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
dissolutionofthesoul on
Just reform it into a graduate tax and then raise the per student price cap for universities. You pay X amount of tax for 40 years depending on your course with no absolute repayment figure.
In practice that is basically the system we have now except it removes the loophole for wealthy people to pay it in one go or pay it privately.
The other option is public funding and increases to general taxation, which really doesn’t need to be done. It would be a waste to squander that particular revenue stream on a system that already works quite well beyond the immediate political barriers.
dahid on
I’ve accepted I won’t be able to pay off my loan before the 30 years is up. The rate of interest just makes my monthly payments feel pointless
Nopedr on
“We’re little more than a month into this new Government, and this is a really big and complex area where if we want to drive change, we need to make sure we get this right, so we will review it”
This is utterly pathetic. They could and should have come up with a policy before ditching free tuition paid for with tax rises.
GKT_Doc on
Just add VAT to the fees. Equal playing field and all that…
YesAmAThrowaway on
Education somehow having to make money is an insane concept!
SmoothlyAbrasive on
The tuition fee should be scrapped across the board to increase access to university education, and laws passed making it a criminal offence to attempt to reverse that decision at any time, for any reason. The government should pay students to get higher qualifications, and they should pay for it the same way they should pay for anything else they need to do in the next hundred years, by SAVAGELY taxing the top 0.7 percent.
ChefRoscoPColtrane on
Maybe there are some private universities out there to ad VAT on
Available_Safe360 on
Universities need to sort their spending out it’s really not that complicated.
botchybotchybangbang on
When I went tuition fees were new, capped at £1100!! and we weren’t happy. You used to get a grant. Guess times change and everyone can offer a degree now…in anything
Impressive-Ice873 on
Labour clearly don’t want to upset their student voters. This education secretary is not capable of doing this job.
23 Comments
Imagine an industry where:
1. the amount you can charge your clients is fixed
2. the number of clients you can take on is fixed
3. you have to take on a certain number of clients that you’d make a loss on
How this is sustainable is beyond my imagination. If this goes on for another 5 years, we will see cuts to staff, then cuts to STEM departments (because they cost a hell lot more than £9,250), and finally going bankrupt and destroying one of UK’s most important export and our economy in the process.
Very little of substance being said here. Fee rises are unpopular, but needed, and there’s going to be some nonspecific reform. Great.
Or, you need to increase public funding. Which would also be unpalatable. Or increase student immigration. Which would also be unpalatable.
There are no easy, popular options here.
Raising tuition fees would be a nightmare for students already struggling with housing costs. Fixing housing w/
There are alternatives, which make much more sense than burdening young people with debt.
https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/13571/Report-shows-employer-education-levy-could-replace-university-student-fees
Its hard to justify rises when the Scottish are sitting on totally fre uni just over the border. Solution is to charge more for internationals, that should go up slightly above inflation and be totally free market to allow places like Oxford to charge north of 60k.
Then you subsidise where needed.
Likely also need to see 40 or so utter dross universities, Liverpool Hope for example, go in the bin.
I worked at a Russell group uni 10 years ago, there were constant rounds of redundancies then as well as since then. Can only imagine it will get worse.
That’s something, but if they don’t replace the system ASAP, it’s going to keep falling apart.
Absurd that our governments treat higher education with such disdain and afterthought when it’s one of the few areas we genuinely excel at. Probably something to do with it involving young people (how dare young people have a good life!)
I would have no problem at all about them charging more. So long as the gov provide INTEREST FREE loans for students to go. It’s the interest that kills you.
I wonder if Labour is fine with letting the universities fail as a means to (slightly) resolve the primary/secondary education hiring crisis?
To be fair, does being straddled with 100k of unpayable debt make any difference to the standard 60k of unpayable debt?
There are far too many universities, many offering poor quality teaching and degrees that aren’t attractive to employers. Complaints from students about the quality of education are at a record level.
The funding solution isn’t to import lots of foreign students to prop up such universities, it’s to rationalise the sector so there are fewer, higher quality universities.
Introducing fees was short sighted in the first place. You provide education to your populace so that you have an educated and skilled workforce, and your companies can have access to that workforce to create wealth and innovative research, as a benefit to the overall economy. It’s an investment. We’ve re-cast it as a cost that society doesn’t want to pay, without realising it impoverishes us over the longer term. But that is very much the neoliberal way; appreciating the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Just reform it into a graduate tax and then raise the per student price cap for universities. You pay X amount of tax for 40 years depending on your course with no absolute repayment figure.
In practice that is basically the system we have now except it removes the loophole for wealthy people to pay it in one go or pay it privately.
The other option is public funding and increases to general taxation, which really doesn’t need to be done. It would be a waste to squander that particular revenue stream on a system that already works quite well beyond the immediate political barriers.
I’ve accepted I won’t be able to pay off my loan before the 30 years is up. The rate of interest just makes my monthly payments feel pointless
“We’re little more than a month into this new Government, and this is a really big and complex area where if we want to drive change, we need to make sure we get this right, so we will review it”
This is utterly pathetic. They could and should have come up with a policy before ditching free tuition paid for with tax rises.
Just add VAT to the fees. Equal playing field and all that…
Education somehow having to make money is an insane concept!
The tuition fee should be scrapped across the board to increase access to university education, and laws passed making it a criminal offence to attempt to reverse that decision at any time, for any reason. The government should pay students to get higher qualifications, and they should pay for it the same way they should pay for anything else they need to do in the next hundred years, by SAVAGELY taxing the top 0.7 percent.
Maybe there are some private universities out there to ad VAT on
Universities need to sort their spending out it’s really not that complicated.
When I went tuition fees were new, capped at £1100!! and we weren’t happy. You used to get a grant. Guess times change and everyone can offer a degree now…in anything
Labour clearly don’t want to upset their student voters. This education secretary is not capable of doing this job.