When a university student leaves education, most will have thousands of pounds worth of debt. Tuition fee loans and maintenance loans all add up to a pretty hefty sum of money. We will all, or the majority of us at least, be sent out into the world with a massive debt on our shoulders to carry with us wherever we go.

It’s true that it’s paid back slowly and steadily when you are earning over £15,000 a year but interest starts from day one, and as interest does, just keeps growing. Is it right that our government are sending young professionals out into the working world saddled with this expense? Some say that students choose to go to university, but is it in fact, as I’ve mentioned before, that students are pushed into further education, and only go because everyone else does? Does that relate back to society making going to university the done thing? Is it right that the government, who enforced tuition fees and maintenance loans as opposed to the grant system, went through education and benefitted from said grants? I think not.

Living as a student is hard work – and its expensive. Not just to support the drinking habits or pasta and pot noodle diets, but to rent accommodation, buy essentials – notebooks, pens, text books, laptops, contents insurance. The list goes on. And on.

I’m all for tuition fees. Why shouldn’t universities get money for training people to do careers that will help them to provide for themselves for the rest of their lives? I understand that the government massively subsidise the fees we pay, but why not bring back maintenance grants? Why not put all of the governments spending for higher education into one big pot and split it equally between all students? Just because parents earn it doesn’t mean that they are capable of giving it to their children.

My mother set up her own business last year – so I feel guilty asking for money when her company is still teething. As a result of my mum leaving part time employment and going self employed, I’ve benefitted from the income assessed maintenance loan but it doesn’t seem right to me that I’m getting more than my course mate sat next to me, or someone on the same course 200 miles away. And I’m careful with my money, but I’m still struggling, so how are the people on less money than me finding living as a student?

Going back to it (before I get tomatoes and rotten veg thrown at me and the crowd begin to get restless and start to swear at me) as far as I’m concerned the Labour government suck at university funding in the UK.

*I appologise to my fellow students who come from other far more exciting places than the UK who are probably reading this and thinking how stuck up I am, as I know that they have to pay substantially more than we do for tuition fees alone. I can only imagine your aggravation is far more than mine.

Related posts:

1. Student Debt: The Facts You Need To Know
2. Entrapment: How Labour is ruining Britain’s universities
3. £83,000 for a degree? It’s possible – but only if you really try…
4. Government want students to do community service – and pay for it themselves
5. Why Rich Kids Are More Likely To Get Into University

Tags: Alice-May Purkiss, David Lammy, Labour, Student Debt, University Funding

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Features, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.