Educating the masses on Funding

Higher Education Funding (HEF) is certainly not sexy. Like British Politics it has all the charisma of your average British politician. But it is important. It’s important because defining the future of how Universities receive funding is something that will affect thousands of young people who (for the most part) can’t vote in the upcoming UK General Election next May, and yet their lives could be profoundly altered by the next government’s stance on this issue.

You might say: “But I’m already here, it won’t affect my fees”, but many of these young people are your brothers and sisters; your nephews, nieces, cousins; your friends or perhaps one day your children, they are your future colleagues, employees and perhaps even employers. And let us not forget that Higher Education Funding does not just mean home undergraduates. The debate includes all kinds of students and while it may be easy to focus on Home EU fees we should bear in mind that even that has a knock on effect on what other fees Universities may charge to all other students.

Another reason I have heard a lot over my time here is: “Why should I bother? We’ll never change anything.” Which I think is surprisingly defeatist for a group of over 16,000 of the brightest people in the world, at an institution recently listed as the second best in the world, who last year managed to have information from their response to the government’s Immigration Policy read in the House of Lords. And particularly at a time when the nation will be asked to choose its next set of representatives. This moment presents a true opportunity to hold those we ask to lead our nation to account and to raise our collective voice to make a change.

The union over the next few weeks will be defining our stance on Higher Education Funding and we can only do that with your help. Come along to our first Union General Meeting since 2012 at 6.30pm on December 1st in Blacket Laboratory LT1 (Physics). The issue we’re looking at most closely is the debate between which funding model the union should support; ‘Free Education’, ‘Tuition Fees’, ‘Graduate Tax’ or ‘None of these’ which you may recognize as the less well-named brother of R.O.N from our union elections. Many of you may not be entirely familiar with these models, particularly if you are not a Home undergraduate yourself so we’ve attempted to lay out the case for each below.

Free Education

Free Education means just that: university education which is free for all students. Education is a public good, not a commodity to be bought and sold. How can we compromise an idea so fundamentally important? Increasingly we hear students referred to as “customers”, research being prioritised based on what makes money instead of what serves society. That attitude is created by a system that is turning universities into businesses – a system which cuts education funding while making students pay more and more ludicrous sums. Free education works in France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Scotland. And anyway, increased tuition fees basically aren’t saving the taxpayer any money.

Free Education is the only system which takes commercial interest out of the equation, and it’s the only system which doesn’t leave students in £60,000 of debt. Taking a firm, principled stance is the only way to stand up to those who would change University for the worse.

Graduate Tax

There has to be something better than bankrupting the nation to pay for thousands of students to do Mickey Mouse degrees or loading students up with debt and making universities treat them like walking income. A Graduate tax seeks to achieve just that.

Instead of a loan you pay a percentage of extra tax on income over a certain value for a number of years. So you literally pay more if you get a really great job due to your degree than if you struggle to earn anything. There isn’t ever an actual ‘debt’ and there isn’t a real or perceived barrier to entry to Higher Education Funding.

My favorite thing about the system is those that gain the most as a result of their degree give back the most in return for it. That’s like being able to only pay for the cinema if you enjoyed the movie… you pay for the value of your degree not the cost of it.

Why pick a second rate system when you can have the best of both and extra benefits on top?

Tuition Fees

Tuition Fees are the system we have now. They’re not trendy or popular but at the end of the day they work. At the end of the day more students from poorer backgrounds are coming to University now than ever have in the past so it’s not the barrier to entry that some would like you to believe.

And is it really so bad that people should have to pay for a specialized education and qualification? In a few years most of us will be paying income tax, why should we pay for someone else to be educated? What makes it a right for those fortunate enough to score better in exams to be given more than those that don’t?

Plus, tuition fees encourage competition: competition to offer the best course so that they get the most funding and are seen as the best institution, attract the best researchers and then other sources of income.

No one is saying Tuition Fees are perfect, but they’re a damn sight better than any other option.

None of these...

What are you kidding? These three models are so wrapped up in proving that they are better than each other they fail to notice that being the best of a bunch of bad options is still a bad option. Why would anyone support a one size fits all solution to such a complex problem? Why would we swallow the downsides of any of these in order to have just one way to fund a degree. There isn’t good evidence to show that Tuition Fees will make University more accessible and it will definitely cost the nation and taxpayer money. Tuition Fees leave students with debts that can hang on their shoulders for decades and if we supported them of course they will slowly creep upwards.

And a graduate tax is a laughable thing to try and implement and the only ‘improvement’ it has on tuition fees is hiding the amount you will have to pay back from you.

We should be campaigning for fresh ideas and admit that it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

What model do you agree with most?

The Union over the next few weeks will be defining their stance on Higher Education Funding. Fill in the #HEF_ICU Higher Education Funding Survey to have your say, which closes on November 19th at Midday.

Find it at imperialcollegeunion.org/HEF-Survey