I went to university at the tail end of the 90s/early 2000s and was among the first few cohorts subject to tuition fees. Neither of my parents attended university, both leaving school at 16. I was very against tuition fees at the time, but now my grasp of social mobility and the economy is such that I have a somewhat different view.
There's plenty of studies that show that when Scotland introduced free tuition for Scottish students at Scottish unis it actually reduced social mobility. The reason being that it made getting into uni harder (especially the most prestigious ones), as universities sought to reduce the spaces available for 'home' students by recruiting more international students.
Similar is happening in universities in England and Wales too because they aren't getting enough revenue from the capped 9k fees, just not on the scale of Scotland.
Universities have to be funded somehow. At present, tuition fees (which aren't paid in advance, only once one has graduated/left and is earning over a certain amount) are effectively a graduate tax.
When there's finite public funds, its seems reasonable to expect adults to pay for something from which they benefit. Whether the level of fees is currently too high or too low, I don't know. But I do know that increasing social mobility relies much more on funding early years better, rather than post-18 education.
It's also reasonable to expect a significant contribution from graduates when there are now so many other routes to getting a degree and/or into many professions than even 20yrs ago. Degree apprenticeships are fantastic and it's possible to even become a doctor by this route. That was never an option when I was 18 and I think it's fantastic that there's so much more choice available now - with high tuition fees just one of those choices.
I'd absolutely hate to go back to a world where there was an arbitrary cap of 10 or 20pc of young people going to university and everyone else was expected to pick up the tab. That would be catastrophic for social mobility. It's far fairer to ask those who benefit most by virtue of a higher income to pay a bit more tax.
And finally, tuition fees have been knocking around for nearly 30yrs now. They've been over 9k a year for over a decade. There's not much sign of young people's desire to attend university drastically falling. Quite the opposite, in fact: more young people from working class backgrounds are attending the most prestigious universities than ever before - despite the many other routes to professions/a degree available.
So no. It's right to ensure young people have a real choice about what they do post 18, regardless of what career they're interested in. But if they do wish to pursue a traditional degree - when they've known pretty much their entire lives that it's going to be £££ - then I think it's fair that they pay an extra few quid (or few hundred quid, depending on salary) in tax each month when they graduate.