September 20th, 2008
Raising the cap will not create a fair market
The lack of funding for higher education is not solved simply by raising the cap on tuition fees, as the Economist believes. If the cap were raised to £7,000, an average student may end up owing around £25,000. A key lesson of the current financial crisis must be not to take on unmanageable debt. Putting people off education – the great equaliser – because of this legitimate fear is surely wrong.
Nor will it allow for a fair market as “prestigious” universities, such as the University of Manchester – my own – will be able to charge higher fees than a less prestigious one, such as the University of Loughborough. This is despite students in the National Student Survey rating the quality of courses at Loughborough a whole 10% higher than those at Manchester; and Loughborough students rate their feedback from academics a staggering 20% better than Manchester’s students. Studying at the best research institutions is no good if the best researchers are not actually teaching students.
