The act of protest is admirable, but higher fees make sense

It is informative that students, of all the victims of the coalition's cuts, are the first to stand up for themselves, instead of blithely accepting the extreme austerity of the current parliament. The growing sense that older generations have used up all the hot water, so to speak, has created a great sense of injustice amongst young people. Add to this the coming Lib Dem betrayal, of their election pledge to vote against tuition fee increases, and it's easy to understand why 50,000 students marched on Wednesday.

Boots on the ground alone are not enough to win arguments. Move away from emotive accusations of abandoning a generation and it quickly becomes clear that the government's proposals are the fairest solution to a difficult problem.

Someone has to pay for higher education. Either society in general, when the government taxes the population, or the individual who directly benefits. There is no need to resort to demagoguery; this ideological point is the essential difference between, say, the N.U.S. and the government.

So in this time of severe financial austerity, when each and every area of government spending is being reviewed, why should the general population bear the costs of giving a select few an advantage in life? The crucial point is while the state cannot bear the cost of the higher education system, the individual, through the tuition fee system, can and should.

Because ultimately student debt is only as scary as the N.U.S. makes it out to be. If you remember that you'll pay a relatively low amount of interest, that the debt will be wiped off after 30 years and that nobody is going to repossess your home then actually it is a pain free way of paying for the best years of your life. If however you believe the scaremongering slogan of "crippling debts" then of course you will be deterred from university.

As more and more people attend university, the state is grows less and less able to foot the bill. It is obvious that individuals should shoulder the costs of that which directly benefits them. The real problem with the current tuition fee debate is that young people are being choked by the smoke produced by the N.U.S. when there's no fire to actually burn them.