This debate is now closed.
Do you agree with ‘no fee degree’ plans?
A university funding plan for England is being considered in which students would pay no fees but would not get any loans or other support. Will this increase access to higher education?
The no-fee degrees proposal would offer students the option of avoiding the cost of paying tuition fees which will cost £3,225 per year from next year.
It would be aimed at university students living at home with their parents and allow them to avoid debt.
The plan forms part of draft framework for the future of higher education.
Will the government proposals encourage people to consider university? Is this the right way to fund higher education? Are you a student who would consider this method or do you work in further or higher education? How should we plan for for the future?
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Published:
Wednesday, 8 July, 2009, 08:37 GMT
09:37 UK
All comments as they come in
Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 08:07 GMT
09:07 UK
Full circle.
An admission that student loans were a silly idea in the first place.
[wvptv-co-uk], Cardiff, United Kingdom
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 08:00 GMT
09:00 UK
People don't value what they don't pay for. An unexpected result of tuition fees is that for the first time students have become the customers and the Universities now have to consider their needs and wants rather than just focus on winning funding from the government. We would get more student focussed universities if students paid full economic costs for their courses and bursaries were available for students in need.
independent educator, oxford
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:56 GMT
08:56 UK
This justs transfers the debt from the Student to their Parent.
One of the greatest pleasures I had from going to University was not living at home.
steve thornhill
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:55 GMT
08:55 UK
I used University primarily as a way of getting away from a horrible home-life, parents, and indeed a bad area. I had very little opportunity to do this without university, coming from a poor background.
Quite apart from the principle, I am therefore against any idea which makes kids more dependent on their parents for longer.
Red Mandar, United Kingdom
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:54 GMT
08:54 UK
Ask anyone if they would like the government give them something for free or pay for it themselves and they will always want someone else to pay for it.
If people REALLY want a degree, they should do like the USA and work their way through college. If they have the intelligence to go through university, they will surely have the commitment get off their backsides and work for it.
At the moment all we have is inferior degrees that are no use in the real world
Mel Anne Colly, Holywell, United Kingdom
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:52 GMT
08:52 UK
What a great idea if you live near a college or university that does your type of course.
If it doesn't, then its not so rosey.
My advice.... for most people.. don't bother. Try and get a job that will carry you through this awful recession.
Dan Plank, The sage of Crewe
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:48 GMT
08:48 UK
Surely any government that can afford to squander £170k on the ethnic minority CV check can afford to invest some money in education without leaving young people in huge debt at the start of their lives? Having said that we must recognise that no one has a right to attend a university and that not every educational qualification post school must be called a degree ("watersport management for goodness sake!).
P R, cardiff, United Kingdom
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:40 GMT
08:40 UK
If we need more science based degree students, engineers, doctors etc then it would be a good idea to make these the ones that have their fees waived. As always the devil is in the detail with this Government and the actual effects will not be felt until after the life of the next term. Do I trust them? No. Do I welcome anything which will put more students into Uni and assist this country yes.
Perfect OrdinaryMan, Weymouth, United Kingdom
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:35 GMT
08:35 UK
What a load of rubbish.
All this is, is shuffleing the costs and changing the way they are payable, JUST to gain votes & at great wasteful expense of already limited resources.
In reality there is NO extra money to make studying cheaper.
This is about HOW the education package is sold to you & is about gaining votes.
HOW will 1+ million+ students survive while studying for 3+ years, with no income.
Get a job? LOL LOL
Or be enticed into devious or criminal activity.
[SKYISBLUESOAMI], UN-SUSTAINABILITY THE EPITATH OF HUMANITY, United Kingdom
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:30 GMT
08:30 UK
Working in administration in one of the 'new' universities, I am constantly appalled by the culture that has developed in recent years whereby universities will do everything they can to keep students 'on board'. I have personally witnessed many transgressions by students which prior to the semi-privatisation of the HE sector would definitely have lead to immediate expulsion, merely brushed aside by senior managers with the statement "but they bring a lot of money in to the university"
Keith, St. Helens
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:26 GMT
08:26 UK
It's probably a good idea for those who want to stay at home and study at their local university, but I'm not sure whether it will encourage more people to do so, or in fact whether we should encourage students to sponge off their parents more!
This shouldn't be marketed as a fantastic idea that will save the education system, since it just won't affect enough people. No, what should be done, is the weighting of tuition fees by relevance of degree to the economy.
Adam, Manchester
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:25 GMT
08:25 UK
Privatise all universities and the system of grants and subsidised loans, then give all 18 year olds a book of vouchers worth £25k to spend before they are 23 on fees or training.
Two year degrees, which are the norm at England's only private university, Buckingham, will become the norm and most of the junk degrees which have developed over the last fifteen years will disappear and 18 year olds will be treated like adults!
John Moss, London, United Kingdom
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:24 GMT
08:24 UK
This is an unrealistic option putting pressure on parents and others to support while the need to stay away from home has to be met with rents and food and other financial need to be to be paid as well.The loan sharks would benefits as well.
vijay k pillai, UK
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:19 GMT
08:19 UK
What is wrong is the obsession with so many going to university. If a sensible number went it could be free as it used to be when our law makers benefited.
[awesomechris12345]
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Added:
Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 07:18 GMT
08:18 UK
That is just another form of the postcode lottery.
You live in Cambridge and have rich parents: you go to a good university and pay nothing.
You live in the sticks with poor parents: you have to move, pay and get a loan.
Great idea.
Constanze Bonifer
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DEBATE STATUS
Total comments: 614
Published comments: 595
Rejected comments: 19
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