Mobilise and motivate - abolish Student Loans with Labour

Mogley · 12 July 2017 at 3:52PM

My opinion of the current student finance situation is that it’s not too bad a deal for students as long it is not thought of as a loan (which I think is similar to Martin's comments) but as the country investing long term in their individual futures. Any profit that is made from the investment in the way of graduate earnings, will be partly paid back as an income based contribution. The more the student/graduate profits by way of earnings, the more they contribute. The universities benefit from the stability of increased funding, generating and securing the quality of further education for future generations (but see the next paragraph for my opinion on tuition fees). The graduates may or may not have to pay the investment back in the future (most will not have to) but will have to contribute towards their education at a rate they can afford at any moment in their working lives (determined by an earnings threshold). The country benefits from the investment either way because generally, those that go to university contribute positively to the economy of the country whether they pay back the student finance or not. The low earners will be the most to profit directly from the terms of the student finance as they could potentially contribute less than the investment. The potential high earners will be those least to directly profit, having to pay back the entire investment plus a potential additional 3% (compounded) of the investment. However, when they are eventually higher earners, student finance contributions should be seen as a necessary pay back to the country that is a result of the faith in which it put in them when they were a student. As a result of the investment in them (and their own hard work and dedication), they will have indirectly profited from the investment by being able to achieve earnings that should give them a decent standard of living

For me, the main thing that needs to change is the cost of tuition for differing degrees. There should be some sort of weighted measure for the achievements of the graduates after a certain time period post-graduation (say 5 years) which gets factored into the cost of tuition and is regulated. This (or something similar) would help focus the universities on providing the best education, life learning experiences and job opportunities for students as possible because the amount of tuition fees they receive for certain subjects is determined by the future success of their graduates. The cost of tuition could then form part of a prospective student’s decision making process of which university will best serve their future ambitions.

Mobilise and motivate - abolish Student Loans with Labour

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