Tuition fees

[rich_jacko]

This excellent blog by Nick Robinson pretty much sums it up.

I'm deeply annoyed by the result of the vote but not at all surprised. Everyone knows from back in May that the Lib + Lab numbers don't stack up high enough, and that's if all Lib Dem MPs voted against, which they weren't going to. The only way this was ever going to get defeated was if there had been a significant Tory rebellion, and nobody was targeting their MPs (although hurrah once again for David Davis).

Bah!

Comments

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

Coalition Programme:

"We will await Lord Browne's final report into higher education funding, and will judge its proposals against the need to:
- increase social mobility;
- take into account the impact on student debt;
- ensure a properly funded university sector;
- improve the quality of teaching;
- advance scholarship; and
- attract a higher proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds."

Labour Manifesto:

"The review of higher education funding chaired by Lord Browne will report later this year. Our aim is to continue the expansion of higher education, widening access still further, while ensuring that universities and colleges have a secure, long-term funding base that protects world-class standards in teaching and research."

You're not seriously suggesting that we were given much of a choice there, are you?

Buried deep in the Browne report is this little nugget:

"Recent OECD research shows that in the UK the benefits of higher education to the individual are, on average, over 50% higher than the public benefits."

In other words, about 60% of the benefits of higher education go to the student in the form of higher earnings. The other 40% are the public benefits, in the form of having a professional workforce to staff our hospitals, teach our children, drive our economy, etc. and of graduates generally being healthier, more law-abiding and less chavtastic.

The obvious conclusion from this is that only about 60% of the cost of a degree should fall on the student, and the remaining 40% on the taxpayer. But the report then seems to ignore this and recommend that students pay practically all the cost themselves. The average cost of a degree is about £7k a year, but fees could go up to £9k a year. Rather than taxpayers subsidising students, it'll become students subsidising taxpayers. That's madness.

I feel a letter to my MP coming along.