Tuition Fees

Who’s better off paying tuition fees? The students or the government? With the rising debate over tuition fees, which has taken over the institutions and the governments discussions on improving education, comes the question of: “who pays?”. So, when the government decided to raise the maximum fees for tuition to £9,000,You can practically hear the universities cheering, making sure to charge more. But what’s the point in taxing more when most of the UK’s population is falling below the poverty line. It may be reasons like this, the UK’s ranking on the OECD global table of basic skills is on the slide.

There are many disadvantages of having to pay for Higher Education. From those who are tight for money or those who are put off by the idea of having to dish out thousands of pounds for Higher Education. I, along with many others believe that just because you have money, doesn’t mean you should have the best education. It’s discriminating to those who are financially challenged. A student who comes from a poor background should have equal rights to Higher Education to that of a student from a well-paid background. For example, two students both attending the same local secondary school, both have greater ambitions for their careers and the ability to achieve it. What if one of the other couldn’t get into university just because of the high fees being charged, but the other did, because unlike the other this student is actually able to pay the fees? That’s a very studious person’s ambitions gone down the drain. Why? Simple, the government and even society have been lead to believe that the best way to get jobs or a career, particularly prestigious degrees such as Law, Medicine and Politics, is to have Higher Education. Have they not understood that the only way to a higher education is to have access to large amounts of money? Not every single aspirational person has that amount of money and by only raising the fees you’re degrading them of their values and putting them off from getting further in life. Sooner or later there will be a loss in jobs that fuel our economy, and crucial key workers like doctors will soon start declining. Tuition fees create images of the high class to be the only ones with the right to an education.
In addition to the degrading effects of the rise in tuition fees is the level of education rankings and poverty that Britain suffers. Now in 2013, the UK sits at 21 for numeracy rates between people aged 16-24 with the adult’s rates being at 16. For literacy rates however, people aged 16-24 ranked at 19 with all adults at 14. If you take into consideration the quality of teaching and technology you’d be as surprised as I was to find out how low we rank. The school dropout’s rate in Britain is ranked one of the worst out of all developed countries. The high figure is actually discouraging adolescents from continuing a Higher Education. Also, by raising the tuition fees, you’re affecting those from low income groups. Unemployment is a big issue in Britain, the unemployment rate currently stands at 7.7%, but the government seems to blame ‘laziness’ on the high figure. You can’t expect to put a rise in fees at such a large amount and expect the country to be better.

Furthermore, rather than charging more on fees the government should look at alternatives. Universities spend so much that it’s not necessary, looking back at the global league table, you’ll notice that the adults, who didn’t use as much technology as we do now, ranked higher than people aged 16-24. Our generation is brought up with technology, that it seems vital for Universities to buy them. Professor Andrew Hamilton, had the daredevilry to taunt us further by saying that universities need funds of up to £16,000 a year. Britain already holds the most expensive tuition fees figures -something they’ve finally ranked top at- in Europe. I reckon, that if the adults had managed a higher rank and if we took into