Tuition Fees

I woke up this morning to an email from The University of Nottingham, where I graduated from last year.

I spent three years there. At times I was well out of my comfort zone, given the backgrounds - and personalities - of many of my peers.

Most of the time, though, I was grateful - grateful of the opportunity I had in front of me, to be a (hold your breath) working class student receiving a top class education, and grateful for the prospects that that would bring.

But after reading the email this morning I fear there will be too few like me who will be able to share this gratitude. Because where I was asked to pay just over three grand a year for that education and that opportunity, my successors - if there are any - will pay nine. In simpler terms, Uni Nottingham have gone all out on the tutition fees front.

I've been slightly quiet on this debate so far. And actually, I'm not as hard on this policy as I am on some of the others coming out of the Coalition; I do, for example, appreciate the changes to the pay-back element of the new student loans, and yes, it was Labour who first introduced top-up fees.

Unfortunately, however, those considering whether to go to Unviersity aren't able to see things in the same way - and when you've got 9 grand/year in your way, it's no surprise why. I wouldn't like to say this with complete conviction, but I am quite sure that if my younger self had been faced with the prospect of (at the very least) a 27 grand debt, he would have spent less time trying to meet the AAB entry requirement, and more time scanning through the Mercury's job page.  

The point is that no matter how many caveats you drop into this policy to help prospective students from poorer backgrounds into University, ultimately they will only see one thing: the debt.

There's no chance for a U-turn on this, and probably not even a "pause, listen and reflect". But there is an opportunity to quench the deterrent, and that task shouldn't be a difficult one...

In any email they send out from now, Nottingham University (and the others) need to hammer home to the undecideds what a degree can do for them - and not just in jobs (crucial as that is), but all the rest that goes with too. Only then will they begin to comprehend why they are being ripped off.