By Mastura Omar
On 31 August, a survey published by YouGov reported that a majority of English people believe current UK university fees of £9,250 are “bad value for money.” With the government’s new changes on the repayment of student loans, the survey revealed that whilst 44% of non-graduates support the new scheme, 50% of graduates opposed it.
Gabriel Leroy, the Secretary of LSESU Labour Society, expressed: “Especially with the latest changes to the tuition fees loans system…Current university fees are bad value for money, and are off-putting to many prospective working-class students across the country.”
Out of 1,500 adults, only 19% felt that the current UK university fee is a good value for university education. Similarly, graduate respondents expressed equivalent views with a mere 18% believing the current university fees correlate with the quality of education, as opposed to 69% of graduates believing the opposite.
Tasha Bellinger, Secretary of LSE Conservative Society expressed: “Whether or not tuition fees are good value for money depends on individual universities and how they allocate their spendings.”
Despite the majority of respondents believing current university fees are bad value, when asked whether a university education impacts graduates’ future earning potential, 44% of respondents who did not hold a university degree believed graduates under the government’s new policy will benefit in the long run. In contrast, graduates themselves believed the opposite to be true.
“The current system of maintenance and tuition loans does place too much of a burden on my future earnings, and the maintenance grants abolished under the Conservative austerity certainly pushed many working-class students away from Uni”, Leroy said.
In regards to how university tuition fees should be funded, the survey found that 42% supported the current scheme of fees and student loans, whilst 26% believed education should be paid from the general taxation, and only 11% were for a tax funded by graduates.
“The student should be responsible for funding their own tuition fees. Our current system is essentially a tax on students that have attended university and to extend that to the rest of the population, who have not utilised this service would be extremely unfair,” Bellinger commented.
In contrast, Leroy suggested that the system “should be designed so that it encourages the most social mobility possible… Surely it is fair that those who had the opportunity to go to uni and gain these higher salaries should not have this paid for by the state.
‘‘There has to be a graduate tax, paid by all students no matter their background. This ensures that the upper-class students who currently just pay their tuition themselves contribute their fair share, and it means that it will not disadvantage those who did not have the opportunity to go to university by tabbing tuition fees on the taxpayer.”
When asked what party the respondents trust to handle the issue of education, 26% supported Labour, 19% supported the Conservatives, and only 6% the Liberal Democrats. Significantly, 44% expressed they did not know, making up the largest proportion.
