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Stop the student loan sell-off - scrap all fees
Socialist Students marching for free education, 2016, photo by Isai Priya (Click to enlarge)
Mary Finch, King's College London Socialist Students
The Tories are once again trying to privatise student debt.
If the plans go ahead, students could be facing a debt crisis on an unprecedented scale. It's unlikely the Tories plan on stopping privatisation at historic debt.
Along with the attacks in the Higher Education Bill, a precedent will be set for mass privatisation and marketisation of education. The government has already relieved itself of responsibility for maintenance grants.
Their first attempt in 2014, which would have sold off all pre-1998 loans, failed. The current proposal is to sell off all pre-2012 student debt.
In both instances, the proposals were justified by arguing that selling off student debt to the private sector increases government income from loans.
For a start, student debt is an exclusionary and inefficient way to fund education. Nationalising the banks and top corporations could pay for free education at all levels for everyone who wants it, and a lot more besides.
But even in the context of the loan system, the Tories' claims are utterly false. Privatising the debt would mean a lump sum, not the steady income the government currently collects. Only the Tories' big business friends would benefit.
The vast majority of students - like myself - took out their undergraduate loans on the promise that we wouldn't have to pay them back until we were earning at least a certain (modest) income.
Many students will soon have postgraduate debt added to that as well. The loans for masters and PhD courses introduced last year are the only route into postgraduate education for most students.
Rising tuition fees and living costs have recently meant dropping numbers of applications for university. But it's possible that, in the short term, this new level of access to postgraduate education will mean many students - often desperate to get an edge in a low-wage, insecure jobs market - increasing their debt even further.
That means some could have up to £71,000 of debt, not including interest. That same insecure and low-paid work means there's no way most can pay it back.
The Socialist Party says no to the sell-off. Scrap all student debts and fees, and restore maintenance grants, to make education truly accessible to all.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
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