If you are a recent or upcoming graduate, congratulations! You now possess a degree, a shiny graduation photo, and a mountain of student debt. When I recently viewed my student finance overview and saw the ca. £58,000 debt to repay, I suddenly felt a lot less motivated. Being the first person in my family to have graduated from university, I felt an enormous sense of pride once I had discovered I had received an upper second-class degree. In a university-driven world, where academia seems to be the only path, why are students like myself being punished for not coming from a middle-class family, for whom university fees are no big deal?
With recent headlines such as “poorer students will bear the brunt of costly loans” and “Graduates to be hit with brutal student loan interest rates” I turn, once again, to our European neighbours for clarity. In France, tuition fees total an average of 170 Euros per year. In Germany, things are more varied but still average at around 370 annually depending on the region and course and finally, a bachelor’s degree in Spain will set you back around an average of 1,500 Euros. Despite most of Europe’s more affordable approach to university, why do we continue to follow in America’s capitalist footsteps? What will we close off next … school, healthcare, or social benefits?
While going to university is not compulsory in the literal sense, it often feels like the only path. Even with a 2.1 from a Russell Group university, I still struggle to be accepted even to an interview. Yet, my parents’ generation were certainly not as academically pressured. We often hear how they “didn’t go to university and still have a stable career”, which is all well and good for the late 80s/90s with their slightly more affordable tuition fees. Unfortunately, today, you can rarely finish school at 16 and find an internship in anything remotely non-manual without A-levels and a degree. On top of this, many companies seem to be searching for those three golden words: experience, experience, experience, which of course most of us have by the age of 21.
What, in fact, are the social impacts of rising interest and tuition costs? The 12% interest rate on university loans will undoubtedly impact those from deprived backgrounds the most, which seems fitting for our current government. If we take a look across the pond to our fellow English-speaking friends, it becomes clear that money truly rules over intelligence. If we take Brown university, for example, a well-regarded Ivy League school, it will set you back an average of 29,000 dollars post financial aid. If this is the future we are heading towards, I wonder how many teens will decide to make the jump to university if all it means is taking 10 steps back before even starting a career. We are still living in a society that economically views university as a luxury rather than a necessity, while the job market suggests otherwise. If we continue to punish our students merely for trying to be successful, we may well see a return to the past, where a university is a place for the affluent middle class.
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