On Tuition Fees

Back in December, there were crazy protests here in Britain about tuition fee increases after the government voted to raise tuition to £9000 per year. I think that most people in the states really didn't know why it was such a big deal, so I thought I would try to explain it. £9000 seems really low when compared with tuition fees at American universities, but that's because American parents pay for some, if not all, of their kids' education. In Britain the student is generally expected to pay the entire cost of their education, which means that the average student will graduate with more than $40,000 worth of debt under the new system. When you compare this with the debt they currently accept, which is less than $20,000 for their entire degree, you can understand why they are upset. This extra debt will especially affect students from low-income backgrounds, because their parents won't be able to take up some of the slack. There are tuition fee waivers and bursaries (which help pay for your daily living costs) for low-income students, but it remains to be seen whether they will be sufficient to make up for the huge increase in cost to students.