Tuition fees- a rethink (Higher Education - Free for all or Fee for all?)

Name: emah

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Product:	Higher Education - Free for all or Fee for all?
Date:	14/10/01 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: means tested, 50% don't pay any fees

Disadvantages: badly ran system, red tape

While I do not agree with Student loans I must say that I believe the THEORY of tuition fees is the right way to go! The main problem at the moment isn't that there are tuition fees rather that the gov'nt have been too naive on the sliding income scale upon which it should be tested. I hope I am right in understanding that the point at which parental contributions are made is £30,000 pa after taxation. In the real world £30,00 pa is nothing I was lucky that my parents fell well below this so I didn't have to pay a thing toward them. But I can understand why people have so many gripes with the system. If your parentas can afford to make a contribution of up to the current £1050 then they ought to. A good starting point I believe for the means test to start at is probably about £35-40,000 rising yearly with inflation taxation etc.
The main point of contention for me and a couple of my friends is that in my own case I have started a degree course at 21yrs old and since I have been away from home for three years I was astonished to discover that I could not apply as an independent student and had to put my parents through all that hassle again. I didn't mind paying tuition fees this time as it is technically a second degree (too long a story to explain!). But as an adult even at 18yrs old for most uni students, the fact that you are in this case still considered a dependent child is an insult to both you and your parents. Not all students are fortunate enough to have the backing of either parent or be in their home so what then. I have already read a review from a gentleman who having been in care found that this made him inelligiable for any financial support to go to uni. This cannot be allowed to go on. Provisions have to be made for every eventuality in order to declare the system an equal opportunities system.

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