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Debt, debt and more debt – the life of a student

Education

Debt, debt and more debt – the life of a student

Debt, debt and more debt – the life of a student

University students seem to not be deterred by the ever-increasing tuition fees required to move in education, Sidney Stanford and Barbara Onwumere report

Students from poorer backgrounds are not deterred from coming to university even after the fees have almost doubled since university fees were introduced two decades ago. A report from the ‘Centre for Global Higher Education’ looks at the consequences of tuition fees in England, after realising the UK has one of the highest set fee’s in the world. University fees were introduced in 1998 at £1k but has currently risen to £9k in 2012. With the continued rise, the gap between rich and poor students has narrowed. Researchers suggest that “the cost of going to university have been accompanied by corresponding increases in student aid” there has been a noticeable decline in the number of part time students as most of them are unable to access financial student aid.

We asked a few university students if this was something they considered before coming to university, a first year film studies student Sandra stated that she really had to think about coming to university and whether it would be worth it as she also had to think about living costs because she was having to make a decision to commute from home to a local university in Norwich or travel to London where she has better access to equipment. Sandra decided to come to London mainly based on the fact she would be given higher financial student aid simply because she was studying in London.

However not all hope is lost as the study also suggests that “England’s system of income contingent loans allows student to safely borrow against their future incomes and means that university is free at the point of entry.

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