This is the year universities in
England are allowed to charge their UK based students £9000 for studying
for just one year. With most undergraduate courses lasting 3 years this
will mean that students may have to pay £27000 for tuition fees. This
doesn’t include the cost of living away from home. We probably will see a
major increase in students either living from home and going to more
local universities, or people will sadly sacrifice university education
altogether.
This is the year universities in
England are allowed to charge their UK based students £9000 for studying
for just one year. With most undergraduate courses lasting 3 years this
will mean that students may have to pay £27000 for tuition fees. This
doesn’t include the cost of living away from home. We probably will see a
major increase in students either living from home and going to more
local universities, or people will sadly sacrifice university education
altogether.
The Guardian newspaper has said
that the average cost of tuition fees for those courses starting this
year is at £8354, or £8071 for poorer students because of some
discounts.
According to reports from UCAS (Universities and College Admissions
Service) the number of applications for courses starting after this
change compared to this time (October 2011) last year is down by 12%.
These reports confirm that the increase in tuition fees has had a huge
affect on people’s decision to apply this year. More detailed reports
say that female students and mature students are the major groups who
have contributed to this decline in numbers. This information comes from
a report on the BBC news website by Sean Coughlan
published at the end of October. The real extent of the drop in numbers
will be known when the UCAS applications deadline finishes later in
January.
A more recent BBC article updated on the 4th
of January shows that even as the deadline becomes nearer there is
still a 7%+ downturn for UK based applicants compared to the same time
last year. The most accurate figures will be released by UCAS on the 30th of January when the deadline has passed.
Whatever the final figures are there will no doubt be a substantial
downturn in applications. Some people will choose not to go into higher
education, and those that do choose to go into severe debt will either
choose a university based on cost not quality or need (with the top
universities charging their students full price), or they will choose
courses they aren’t completely interested in but that could lead to
better prospects of employment after they graduate. This has proven to
be the case according to statistics in The Guardian article
mentioned above that show, for example, social science courses and even
some science courses in universities becoming less popular. This means
that higher education will revert to being a system that serves and is
catered to the rich.
Indeed a recent report by UCU
highlights that by 2015 public funding for teaching and research at
university will fall to its lowest share (15%) of total funding since
1895! That of course means that the rest is funded by individual
students (reaching 50% of the total) as well as big business (with
strings attached of course).
The combination of these two factors implies a contradiction in the
higher education plan. They want to push the burden of funding onto
individual students, but at the same time the crisis of capitalism
ensures that ordinary people cannot afford to foot the bill. As we can
see this leads to a decline in applications. It follows that students
will struggle to plug the gap left by government spending cuts, and that
consequently many universities in the coming period may go bankrupt.
All this decisively justifies the militancy of the student movement
in 2010/11 and the developing movement in the trade unions against
everything this government is doing. If we do not put up a determined
fight it will not be long before our whole higher education system is
essentially a privatised luxury.
