Raising the cap will not create a fair market
Sep 20th, 2008 by Chris
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.
