Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg vowed to cut University costs, yet our Tory government have plans to see the rise of fees of up to £9000 per year in 2012.
Since gaining political power in May 2010 on a five year fixed term basis, David Cameron and his conservative lead party have imposed this increase for less than a year’s time.
In recent weeks, the streets of London and throughout the UK have witnessed the sights of outraged students protesting against this sanction. Thousands of students from the likes of Southampton Solent, Huddersfield, and Belfast took part in these mass protests in which were set out to rebel against the increasing cuts for our future degree students.
Nick Clegg leader of the Liberal Democrats and now deputy prime minister repeatedly publicly announced his views on scrapping tuition fees last year during April 2010 in a bid to win over the public votes. This has not impacted on the views, even under this coalition government of fellow colleague and Prime Minister David Cameron.
Matthew Wells, a union representative for the civil service said: “I think this is a backwards step for our society. It will turn the clock back to a time when further and higher education was the preserve of the wealthy. Certainly education for most will be reduced to a rudimentary provision of the skills needed in the workplace, which for most of us will be to perform menial tasks.”
Matthew studied at Anglia Polytechnic now renamed as Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge, and did not have to pay fees during his time at university under the newly labour government.
He added: “I was the last intake to receive fully paid fees and a full grant by the local authority. This was free and was around £1500-£2000 a year. This was still not enough to live on so I had help from parents, a part-time job and loans.”
Year after year, Student Finance provide fees, loans and grants to millions of students borrowing money who are not financially stable enough to pay their way through further and higher education. This is putting them in thousands of pounds worth of debt at just the start of their career.
“This will undoubtedly discourage many from less wealthy backgrounds and saddle those who pursue an education with excessive debt. This will mean that those who go through further and higher education will have an even more difficult start in life,” added Matthew.
Chloe Thornton, an 18 year old Law and Politics student who studies at the University of Essex does not believe that student fees should be free. She said: “Unfortunately, although this would be beneficial to a lot of students less fortunate financially, I believe that this would encourage a lot of students who do not particularly want to study any more, to just go out of education being free. This would further cut off students who are interested in wanting to study having less chance to exceed the entry requirements because of the higher demand of students.”
Chloe added: “With this, this does not mean that I am encouraging the increased policy. Student life is beyond expensive now, and I even struggle with my part time job. This inflation means that students will find it more difficult to survive and pay back their debt, and I find it very annoying that the government have failed to see this for the future students. This will certainly put off many students wanting to achieve through using universities, and I think that that’s a great shame”.
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