It's an issue which has been the cause of deep political uprising and unrest among many in recent demonstrations and parliamentary confrontations. A rather significant level of damage has been caused and protestors in their thousands appeared to give strong and valuable views on the matter. However the question, simply put, is can the actions of the government be justified with regards to such a matter?
Well in my opinion yes they can, or at least to the greater extent. The government recently introduced legislation that states "all children or adolescents under the age of 18 must be in full time education", whether this be college, school or even an apprenticeship, education is still therefore a compulsory right until one reaches the age of 18. Well you may be wondering quite exactly what this has to do with the raising of tuition fees? For the most part the action taken by the government to ensure young people stay in education until they reach the age of 18, simply suggests that they are keener and in greater need of academic success. After all the main reason we are provided with any education in the first place is merely so we can go on to pay tax as a senior working member of society, right?
Now with reference to universities and the raising of there annual fees comes a number of arguments both for and against. For starters, you could argue that in raising the cost of fees, the quality of education provided by the given establishments will also follow an upwards trend. Obviously Oxbridge and the like, will still have no reason to fight for their students, however other universities, especially those that rank averagely are certainly going to have to up their game in order to attract a full complement of fee paying students. After all if the lever of teaching is poor, students will not bother wasting £9000 a year, and simply look elsewhere instead. Although this is not overtly guaranteed, it is more than likely that instead of students alone competing for places, it will also be the universities themselves competing for students. Not only does this ensure universities increase the standard of their teaching it is also likely to have the subsequent effect of pulling education standards up across the board. Therefore theoretically increasing the quality on average of degrees achieved by students ( I.e from a 2:1 to a 1st).
Another crucial argument lies in the fact that the fees have been increased so significantly. Beforehand average fees were around £3500 a year for most universities however how can the government justify such a dramatic increase? Well to begin with, look at the cost of private sector education which currently ranges from around £10000 a year for base rate fee paying schools to up to £30,000 for the higher class establishments. This is all very fair as in my opinion private sector education is a brightened alternative for those among us that can afford it. The question being why such an uproar at universities charging more? The fact that the maximum cap on fees now sits almost 10% below that of the most affordable private schools is only a testament to the work undertaken by the government. In essence before the rise was introduced everyday taxpayers were funding universities and providing the majority of the money used to run and maintain them. Quite frankly the taxpayer does not pay to run private schools, so why should we pay to fund universities?
The important thing to remember here is that university is an option, not a right or a definite. Nobody is forced to go to university, unfortunately nowadays many who do not attend university are frowned upon, especially amongst the middle classes. In my opinion this should not be the case, many people feel an obligation to go to university simply because their friends are doing so. Subsequently many take somewhat ridiculous and pointless degrees just for the sake of it ( golf course management etc). Less than thirty years ago universities used to be a place where those who had achieved well academically in society could go and study an academic subject ( something testing and respectable). Thankfully with the increase of fees now undertaken, many people will now be discouraged from attending university and enrolling in a pointless, unnecessary degrees which have little or no significant place in society. This may sound slightly harsh but I truly believe the increase in fees will cause those wishing to attend to consider further both the course they take and it's potential for success in later life. As well as making the student think, it will no doubt provide universities with a more willing cohort of students; those that implicitly chose university and weren't just made to feel like they should go.
An argument has been put forward by many protestors that the increase in fees hits the poorest to the greatest extent. In fact this couldn't be further from the truth. The conservative party are branded for being harsh and sometimes unfair on the poorer i'n society, quite the opposite i'n fact. The poor will suffer very little as a result of the increase, merely due to the extensive bursary and funding programmes i'n place for this who can't afford to attend.
However teenagers with middle income parents, who do not wish to fund their children through university will be worst hit. There is little to no support in terms of direct finance for such a candidate. Although i'n order to compensate for this lack of support the government has introduced a very clever lending scheme ( which is open to all) this allows candidates to borrow money to pay their fees and is only repayable upon earning over £22500 a year ( increased from a prior £15,000 per annum). From my perspective this scheme on behalf of the government is very fair and motivates candidates to get a job as soon as possible after leaving university. Hence benefiting society through not only having more skilled or academic workers but also lowering the national unemployment rate.
With all these factors taken into consideration, why should we be so opposed to the increase? I believe we should embrace the changes and be thankful all universities still cost less than base rate fee paying schools. Not only this, but the level of education is also likely to increase hence marking the way for a better and more competently educated Britain.
Yes we are going to have to pay more for such a privilege, however in economic times such as these we should take that more as a given than a shock. Nevertheless there will always be those who oppose the policy, and I respect you for doing so, but in my opinion I have fully justified why the government has the right and essentially the need to raise university tuition costs.
