University Fees

At the risk of inadvertently starting a fight...

I don't see why some people get so wound up whenever a rise in tuition fees is announced. Not these days anyway. Back when I was student and you had to pay for the tuition up-front, I could see the point and would agree with them wholeheartedly.

But since 2006 the tuition fees (along with any student loan) have been payable after graduation, once earning above a certain amount of money and even then only paying a small percentage on the salary above that threshold.

So it follows that an increase in the amount of tuition fee will have, in itself, absolutely no consequence on the graduates' income as the amount deducted from their wages would remain constant.

Yes, the total figure "owed" will grow. But this money is not owed in the traditional sense. It has no bearing on our credit rating, it does not affect obtaining a mortgage (the salary deductions would, but the total value of the "debt" would not) and my "student debt" has not interfered with any of my activities. So to say that graduates are "crippled by debt" is, quite frankly, nonsense.

Yes, if my salary stays at its current level I'll be paying a small amount of money to the Government (via the Student Loans Company) until I retire but that is a different issue in my opinion. It certainly doesn't seem to be the point being made by some in the National Union of Students.

Now if you want to have that discussion on whether I should be paying anything at all, then lets have it. Please don't be melodramatic and say that the lives of graduates will be ruined forever though - because they won't.