English students have recently become victim to a hike in university fees, with tuition set to rise from £9,250 to £9,535 a year from 2025 onwards. It’s easy to accept this shameless move from the government as simply the cost of gaining a degree, but why should we? The quality of teaching received has neither changed nor improved and most English students are already drowning in debt, continuously being squeezed of their every penny in order to live a secure life.
To be transparent, this increase is not fair. Thousands of English students annually go to university in the hope that opportunities will arise and doors will be opened, only to be greeted with a kick in the teeth: subjected to astronomical fees for degrees that just aren’t delivering the life-changing opportunities we dream of. We are trapped in a competitive cycle where an undergraduate degree simply isn’t enough to secure top jobs anymore, and postgraduate education is becoming a necessity to succeed. Student Finance England currently offers five years of educational funding, meaning English students are left rubbing their pennies together to fund these underwhelming, but often necessary, courses. Students are already feeling the pressures of rental increases and soaring energy costs. This fee increase is just humiliating and unreasonable. The rich stay rich whilst those taking out loans feel the financial burden of degrees for decades to come.
Obviously, we would all be much more accepting of this increase if the university experience truly met what we hoped it would be like. In return for our pockets being emptied, students are met with strike after strike and limited contact hours. Student intake is so high that universities are simply running out of space to teach all of us, with online teaching becoming increasingly favourable and desks in the library a highly sought-after commodity. Yet, we continue to pay thousands for a dissatisfactory service. Nevertheless, those in the highest positions within universities flaunt their six-figure salaries and turn a blind eye to the financial hardships of their students. As long as students keep paying their ridiculous salaries, they will continue to stay silent. Let’s not pretend that universities are struggling in the way their students are; the purpose of education should be about opportunity, not deprivation. This hike in tuition fees is just another reminder that higher education is a luxury reserved for the wealthy.
“Edinburgh Students at Graduation” by thisisedinburgh is licensed under CC BY 2.0.