to think that education should be free...

[NordicPrincess]

i dont agree with school fees, i think it breeds the idea that you can buy your way into anything, which might be true but is also very wrong and we need to break the cycle somehow.

I find it ironic that those that benefited from free university places and grants to assist them with living costs are the same people now saying to a generation of young people we want to charge even higher fees for uni, graduation taxes and lower loans etc...

Does no one else think this is a piss take??

I agree that schools should be free - however I don't have a problem with people having to pay for HE

Yep, I think the first people who should pay a targeted graduate tax are the wealthy politicians recommending it for the younger generation. Many graduates will not earn significantly more due to their qualifications, and society benefits from having educated people as teachers, social workers, community worker etc, and as such should pay for them.

it could easily be free for anyone who wants to go to university if we all paid loads more tax.

University in the 1980s was about 12% takeup. It's now about 40%. Provided no-one objects to around two thirds of people who currently go to university not being able to, or a massive increase in taxation, we can return to the funding arrangements of the 1980s.

David Cameron would not have received a grant: there was no minimum grant by the time he started university in 1985. Minimum grants were abolished in 1985: they stood at £410 in 1983 and £205 in 1984, hitting zero in 1985.

Higher education has to be paid for by somebody doesn't it.

I remember marching against student loans back when I was a student 'education is a right, not a privilege' etc. Tbh as an adult now I look on university education as a privilege and not a right.

I'm embarrassed to admit that far from grabbing my 'right' with both hands and savouring it, as a student I did like all my friends and skived off, did the bare minimum, got pissed etc. I'm honestly not sure I feel like funding other people's kids in 3 years of leisure which is what uni is for so many.