Blog
Willetts Announcement
Yesterday, David Willetts, the universities minister, claimed that students are a ‘burden on the tax payer’.http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jun/09/david-willetts-students-tuition-fees
Now, whilst you may agree, the same could clearly be said for the ill, the old, the vulnerable, transport, and city bankers to name a few. The difference is, is that our student social workers, nurses and doctors, chemists, electronic engineers, and economists along with the myriad of other student from a number of disciplines will soon be the ones to help the rest and to reduce that burden.
The students that we have here at York now will in fact pay more taxes because of their degrees over a lifetime. In essence, they are and will be the taxpayers. We have a large amount of students here at York who have returned to education to up skill, change career path or simply to enjoy learning again, some for the first time who have all been paying their taxes for years and years.
Think how many of you would have been happy to pay a few thousand more a year for your degrees, what about double? How about another two zeros on the end of your tuition fees? Would you be happy to pay more for less?
The average student debt on leaving University is currently £23,000. Couple this with a saturated job and property market, and a difficult climate for securing loans, this amount can be debilitating for some, but crippling for others and it’s getting worse. I firmly think it’s time that the government started to think seriously about how to help us rather than to burden us with even more debt, which would be criminal and desperately unfair and unfeasible.
This union supports the NUS Blueprint, which is principle is a progressive tax linked to the earnings of a graduate. This will not only mean that nurses don’t end up paying more than doctors for their degrees, whilst earning less, or that upfront fees cannot be off putting for potential students, but that degrees will be priced on their benefits to the individual. All subjects can be open to all rather than disciplines being randomly priced which would see, as in Australia ‘luxurious’ subjects like arts and humanities open to the rich. This would result in a significant increase in the amount of money that would then be paid to Universities over a period of time.
I for one will be e-mailing Julian Sturdy, our conservative local MP, to remind him of his verbal commitment to oppose any increase in fees for students at the debate he attended only a couple of months ago hosted by our students on campus.
We all know that it’s a tough financial climate, but we simply cannot allow those advocating for us on a local and national level to forget their duty to equal access to education, making clear that we do not want potential students to be priced out of prestigious universities such as our own.
Please do join me, and here is a link where you can find your local MPs too:
http://www.officeronline.co.uk/nationalcampaigns/articles/277477.aspx
Yes, the university needs more money, but from investment from the government in one of the most important bastions of social mobility left in the country: education.
There are alternatives to the proposals likely to come from the stitched up Browne review which is almost certainly going to recommend an increase in fees, some of them have been submitted here:
Now is the time to lobby your MPs, and to fight for our rights and ensure that your friends and families are doing the same.
I'd love to know your thoughts on this, and if you'd like to campaign in this area please don't hesitate to get in contact with us. c.leyland@yusu.org
