it looks like they’re revamping student funding yet again. as i went to uni the year they brought in student loans and stayed there seven years this is a subject that’s always of interest to me.

four years out of postgraduate studies and my student debts are pretty much paid off. my low interest student loan costs me way less than i spend on beer these days (or even did in those days).

my major problem is that it seems that they will still be tieing the funding available to students to their parents income. it seems ridiculous to me that for most people the decision to continue in education as an over eighteen year old adult involves dependency on your parents.

i’m not a fan of the american system of students paying for their entire education up front, though it has some good side effects like encouraging industrial sponsorship which is still a relative rarity in the uk. starting your working life in huge quantities of debt doesn’t seem like a sensible undertaking. i don’t on the whole see the problem with a graduate tax system a la australia though.

something i do have a problem with is the idea that ever higher numbers of people should go to college. if a degree is an expected acheivement for everyone then it is no longer a choice to get one. i don’t think a degree as a prerequisite for every job is sensible. if tertiary education is compulsory, even de facto rather than de jure, then it should be funded by the state rather than by the individual just as primary and secondary education are now.

but it was my choice to take post secondary education. not my parents choice. and i’d have appreciated a way to take it without government enforced dependency.