Labour Manifesto Scraps Tuition Fees

[bojorojo]

So the draft manifesto says Labour want to scrap tuition fees. Like thousands of other students, my DD2 has student debt of £40,000. Is this fair on existing students and how will university funding be affected? What are the likely consequences?

or even

so as not to advantage them over all those who had to pay £3k annual tuition fees

And is it just the loans for fees?

What about maintanance loans? Are we going back to means tested grants? Are those existing loans being paid back to students?

My own skin in the game here BTW is I have twins going off in September. We were gonna pay for them, but obviously if it's free, we'd be delighted...though less delighted with the hammering we'll get on tax!

Do you really believe even Corbyn would be able to find the money to pay back existing student loans? So many commitments have been made they would have to renege on some of them. Also everyone will be affected by increased tax rates, as more and more money is needed.

What about the English students studying at Scottish universities, will they still have to pay the full £9250 fees as they do currently? As I understand it education is devolved to the Scottish parliament so JC would have no jurisdiction to scrap fees for this group of students.
My DD has a conditional offer for a Scottish uni starting this September, and is worried she would be paying fees while none of her friends who have applied to English units will. If labour win she is wondering if she would have to reject her place in Scotland and reconsider her options, which is a stress she could do without at the moment. While I support the principle of abolishing fees, the students from England studying in Scotland appear to have been overlooked in labour's policy, unless it is in the small print somewhere?

Get, same here but I am pretty sure Corbyn will not be getting in (although make me eat my words on here if he does) so it probably is irrelevant. If he does get in then it would probably make sense to take the loan in September if it will be written off during next year.
I suspect he would go back to the system when I was at university - nominal maintenance grant for most people (I got £50 and a full grant £900 in my day probably £9k today for maintenance (plus fees covered for everyone regardless of parents' or child's income and assets)) So middle class people might find the fee element £9250 was paid but not the maintenance part.

My 2 have not applied to student finance yet as they were not going to take any loans so I wonder what the cut off for that is eg if Corbyn in elected next week then there may well be a surge in those rich enough to fund fees applying for loans. What a mess.

unless it is in the small print somewhere

Not a lot small print in the Labour Manifesto. This is the complete section on Higher Education; p43 of the document

Labour believes education should be free, and we will restore this
principle. No one should be put off educating themselves for lack of money or through fear of debt.

There is a real fear that students are being priced out of university
education. Last year saw the steepest fall in university applications for 30 years.

Since the Conservatives came to power, university tuition fees have
been trebled to over £9,000 a year, and maintenance grants have been abolished and replaced with loans.

The average student now graduates from university, and starts their
working life, with debts of £44,000.

Labour will reintroduce maintenance grants for university students, and we will abolish university tuition fees.

University tuition is free in many northern European countries, and
under a Labour government it will be free here too

Not sure if there is some more detailed policy document somewhere, although its seem the devil that will undoubtedly be present in the detail is being kept bottled up until after the election - although a similar charge could be made against manifesto elements of probably all the parties.

Even the Graun has its doubts

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/22/labour-scrap-tuition-fees-not-progressive-measure-early-years-education

Of course as many have pointed out this whole discussion is most likely to be purely academic

Scurries of in shame after having resorted to such a truly awful pun

On the Scottish point above that's interesting. One of my children has Edinburgh as a back up choice so if he has to pay fees if he goes there but not his first choice (in England) then I hope the exams go well....

I know it's very unlikely it will happen but....

We are funding our DC through Uni. 4 DC for a total of at least 17 years worth of fees. (Some at £3,000 per annum). I'll be gutted if other students existing loans get wiped out 😭😭😭

We knew the pros and cons of self funding and understood that it's not always financially the absolute best thing to do but didn't consider the possiblility of loans being retrospectively wiped out.

Yes, that option wasn't on the Martin Lewis website.

I have not funded a child at the £9k fee level yet - just £1k and £3k so I am not too bothered if they write off other people's loans and I am sure they are unlikely to wipe out the maintenance element (My reference to the £50 a year maintenance grant I got is correct and I meant the £900 was the full grant (for rent etc) - which I did not get and nor did most people with middle class parents, only the less well off got it).

Post-election how likely does anyone think this will play out over the next 2-5 Years?
Could the Conservatives perhaps look at abolishing or reducing tuition fees to get the youth vote?
Would Labour be likely to stand by this if they were elected?

I so want my DD (Yr11) to avoid starting adult life burdened with a huge debt, particularly as she is unlikely to study either a vocational degree or at a very high ranking uni.

You are not burdened by huge repayments if you don't earn much money. It just sits there and doesn't stop you getting a mortgage. You are investing in your future so students should make the most of their opportunities. The other option is to go back to asking everyone to pay more tax or far fewer people go to university so if he doesn't get in, that will stop the worry. perhaps that's the best way forward? We go back to the good old days when hardly anyone went to university - but it was Free!!!! Except that the bin man paid for you, and the nurse, and the shop worker. Nothing is free!

I don't get how so many other European countries offer free or severely reduced uni fees, but we can't.

Because most have less than 42% of 42-65 year olds with degrees.

this list shows us at 49% of 25-34 age group, Germany with 28%. So half the pupils and can afford.
Scotland's experience shows that 'free' uni education limits places and reduces the number of poor at university.
Highest levels are in US and Canada, who charge a lot more than the UK.

Because tax is considerably higher in most European countries.

It is a bit misleading to quote Germany as 28% and us as 49%, because in Germany there is also tertiary vocational education which is included in our 49%.