UK TUITION FEES REVIEW: HOW LIKELY IS CHANGE?
Prime Minister Theresa May’s University Review won’t help students
by Buse Beysungu
The UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, announced a review of post-18 education, focusing on university funding. In February, she said the review would “examine how we can give people from disadvantaged backgrounds an equal chance to succeed".
The options include restoring maintenance grants, lowering tuition fees and interest rates. England needs a repayment system that is fair for everyone - but how can this be achieved?
May wants equality for the disadvantaged, but maintenance grants were scrapped in favour of loans by her party in 2016. Poorer students now leave university with more debt as they are offered a larger maintenance loan, calculated by household income, but interest fees are currently at 6.1%.
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Justine Greening, former Education Secretary, believes maintenance grants should be reinstated for those who have suffered the loss of the bursary - but the new ED has other plans. Damian Hinds has called for a ‘value for money’ system in setting tuition fees for different courses.
This risks poorer students, as many are likely to apply for cheaper courses to avoid large sums of debt. The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that medicine and dentistry graduates earn the most, at an average of £46,700.
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These degrees are the most valuable to students, and the most expensive, advantaging those from higher income backgrounds.
Winnie Simeon, a Biomedical Science undergraduate, thinks the proposed price adjustment to tuition fees is unfair and “is going to lead to a decline in BSc subjects”. An advocate for equal opportunities for students from all backgrounds, she says “a degree is a degree. If you want to lower it, lower it for everyone”.
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With the current system, graduates must pay 9% of their taxable income above £21,000 in loan repayments. Next month, this threshold will rise to £25,000. An increased threshold means slower repayments, which in turn increases the interest paid. The IFS say students in England face over £5,000 in interest charges before they have even left university.
This decision only benefits higher-earning graduates, as they will stop paying sooner. The change is not progressive for students like Seena Rezazadeh, a Business and Management undergraduate from a lower-income household. Initially believing the increased threshold would be beneficial, he said “after considering the fact that there would be more interest to pay off, I feel like the government is trying to find any way to financially benefit from students who have taken out loans”.
