Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/686/12826
From The Socialist newspaper, 21 September 2011
University - pay more, receive less
Alex Wortley, Bristol
I was pained to learn that I would be saddled with £20,000 worth of debt when I leave university, when previous generations had been able to study effectively for free. But now it's even worse with young people facing a crushing £50,000 debt for merely trying to educate themselves in the hope of finding work in this bleak economic climate.
Many people of working class backgrounds wishing to further themselves through higher education will be deterred from doing so as a result of the increase in tuition fees - now at £9,000 a year in most institutions.
Cameron, it seems, would much rather young people from poorer backgrounds 'stay in their place'. This is reflected, in part, by the way the cuts have hit the ex-polytechnic universities, with the vast majority of students traditionally from state-educated, working class backgrounds, a lot harder than the Russell-group universities or Oxbridge.
So not only will new students be paying ridiculous fees, but they will receive a much lower quality of teaching - paying more for less. And the same can be said of current students, who will also be bludgeoned with the same axe, which will result in fewer contact hours and up to one third of lecturers fired in some cases.
And so for students such as me, a university education no longer becomes something desirable, or something considered a right for all.
It is becoming blindingly obvious that this government does not represent the majority and does not have a mandate for these decisions. It also becomes clear that only by removing these career politicians from power and creating a socialist system where education is a right available to all, can we hold any hope for our future.
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In The Socialist 21 September 2011:
Building for 30 November strike
We won't pay for the bankers' crisis!
30 November - the fight of all our lives
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Gloucestershire: Rage ignites against NHS privatisation
12th hour reprieve for Dale Farm
Socialist Party news and analysis
Wales mine deaths: Privatisation comes under the spotlight
Private rail companies - a licence to print money
Socialist history
Poplar 1921: 'Better to break the law than break the poor'
Socialist Party feature
2011 Labour Party conference - a debate: Can Labour be reclaimed?
International socialist news and analysis
Kazakhstan: Dictatorial regime threatens socialist activists
Floods devastate Sindh: Crisis worsens, hundreds killed
Socialist Party youth and students
Don't let the Con-Dems steal our future!
Save Devon youth service: "time for young people to stand up"
Jobs, homes and services, not racism
University - pay more, receive less
Youth protest movement grows in Israel
Socialist Party workplace news
Southampton council workers vote for more action
Remploy workers "will not go gently" - or at all!
Expelled from Unison for effective anti-cuts leadership
Bus workers force management climb-down
Protesting construction workers call for national strike ballot
Recognition won back - at a price
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