A Final Plea for Education

As a student in central London, life can be expensive. This year I was able to get grants and bursary totalling £1000 ,as well as maintenance and tuition fee loans of approximately £9000. Even with this handsome sum of money however I still find myself perpetually poor and am currently reduced to a strict weekly budget of £45 in order to stretch my loans out over the year. I'm lucky in that I have my parents to help subsidise me for books and send emergency food parcels, as well as savings to dip into when I'm desperate. I will soon have to face up to the fact however that come the end of my 4 year Msci course I will owe the government £36,000. £36,000, at the tender age of 22! The prospect of owing so much is eye watering and yet I will most likely be considered one of the lucky ones by the next generation of university goers, when it comes to facing debt.

Tomorrow, parliament will vote on whether to increase the maximum tuition fee cap to £9000 and as much as I hate to admit it, I'm pretty certain that the vote will be a resounding yes in favour. The maddening consequence of this fee hike is that students who work hard enough to get places at the best universities must now have to expect a minimum of £36000 of debt, with loans for their living costs only piling on top of that figure. If I added my living costs to this fee I would be looking at a cool £72,000 of debt when I leave university. How then can the government try and fob this fee hike, which will leave this generation shadowed by massive debts, as a "progressive change" when so many of them were granted their university education for free?

I know what Clegg has been trying to say, albeit rather patronisingly, when he asked students to read the reports before they protest. It isn't all bad news: The very poorest students will have support with Universities who charge over £6000 being made to use a part of this extra income to support those from lowest income families. Graduates will also not have to repay their fees until they're earning over £21,000 (with the ConDems announcing ahead of the vote today that this threshold will now be raised yearly) and if the debt is not repaid in 30 years it is written off, regardless of the amount outstanding. 30 years however is a long time and I also fail to see how lending such a vast quantites that are not expected to be paid back within a period of several decades, is conducive to a more stable economy or system of funding. I don't pretend to be an economist however and therefore invite anyone who can explain to me why this is the case, to do so in the comments. I would love to hear from you.

The thing is that fees are not the only issue here. Huge cuts are being made to total university funding: As the government is given scope to remove funding for "non-priority" subjects, humanities students in particular will be losing out. The government is also cutting EMA (Educational Maintenance Allowance), a resource which many of my friends found a necessity throughout college to pay for books and travel to and from school.

For some the changes will be a small improvement, but for the majority this is not the case. We run the risk of a two tier education system, in particular losing students who don't quite fall into the brackets for low income support and can't stand the thought of obtaining that much debt. So with that in mind I say protest tomorrow if you want or attempt one last final lobby at your mp. And keep it peaceful in the spirit of the occupations which have happened in so many universities across the country, as well as the many marches and flashmobs. All I can say is that I hope I am wrong and that the inevitable decision tomorrow does not affect the chances of ordinary people receiving the educations they are entitled to.