Comments for#260 No Agenda Show for 12/12th 2010 Madoff has left the building

It appears that there is a lot of misinformation regarding the recent proposals to increase student fees in the UK, so I’d like to present a few points.

Comparing costs to those in the US is complicated because the political and educational system, along with laws, tax and culture are quite different.

At the root of this current situation is a growing resentment by the younger English generation that baby boomers got all of their education for free, with a stipend, along with many other benefits which are now being paid for by future generations.

There is increasing perception and reaction to upper executives in the west receiving compensation estimated to be over 500 times the average worker in large corporations. These businesses move manufacturing and jobs to China where there is no concern for human rights, fair trade and environmental pollution, and then sell the stuff back to a demoralized society. The notion that the west should pursue and invest in new technologies appears to be somewhat lost within the current economic climate.

In the UK, there tends to be a greater resentment among the poorer elements of society that scorn the wealth of the upper class and rich, and they perceive fee hikes as being exclusionary. America is an aspirational society, unlike Europe and the UK, so Americans don’t tend to question paying higher fees for a university education.

Parliament actually voted on the right to allow universities to raise their costs from £3,290 per year to around £6,000 per year with some universities being allowed to get special approval from the Office For Fair Access (OFFA) to raise their fees to £9,000 per year. A provision in the new policy increases the payment threshold at which repayment is made. It is currently set at £15,000 and will rise to £21,000, but the interest rate will also rise from the current 1.5% to a variable rate between 0% and 3% plus inflation (using the Retail Price Index). Acquiring a mortgage or loan will not be affected, as the loan is not counted as debt. If after 30 years the loan is not paid, it is written off.

There are some 1.6 million University students in the UK, and the protestors account for a fractional percent of all students, with an even smaller fraction being violent anarchists. The protesters also occupied various buildings preventing students completing their dissertations, compromising months of work.

While there is a good argument for free education and the beneficial rewards in creating a prosperous society, there are those who would make a career out of being a student and love to live off the backs of others. I’m sure anyone with sufficient intelligence and awareness could come up with an effective policy regarding the cost of further education. One approach might be to provide free student education for the first year, and subsequent years involving increasing fees.

The bottom line however is that harming people and property because you are angry about something is fundamentally wrong.