Despite my reassurances about when and how debts are paid back, bright kids are frightened of thousands of pounds worth of debt - especially those who don't come from a background where debt is a positive thing (mortgages for houses - and ones where there is no danger of being repossessed; holidays new cars) rather than a negative thing.  Many of the brightest kids who've gone to uni in the last couple of years, that I'm aware of, have left university in their first and second years - with a third to a half of the debt, but none of the benefits.  I'm aware of many students choosing to live at home for university, to save money, and even more choosing to do part-time degrees in local colleges (to be taught by the likes of me!!!) where it is still possible to get grants, etc. to cover tuition costs, and - even where that is impossible - the tuition is cheaper, and they can hold down a job at the same time.  In the universities themselves, academic courses are increasingly being replaced with vocational ones (once the preserve of the colleges that are now teaching the academic degrees) because they can demonstrate a surer 'return' on their students 'investment'.  That is the new reality of university education for everyone but the wealthy - whether you think it's a good thing or not is a different matter.

But I disagree with top-up fees and student loans ON PRINCIPLE.  Do we, as a society, believe in education for profit or in education as a good thing in itself?  I believe in the latter.  My teachers, professors, my GP, the nurses and doctors who look after me when I'm ill, the people who design computer packages that help me to write all this... yes they are rewarded for the job that they do in their pay packets (although in some of those examples, not rewarded enough!) - but they are not the only people to benefit from the education they have had.  I am benefiting too, therefore it is perfectly reasonable that I should contribute to that cost, based on my ability to pay.  A brain-surgeon should pay money towards university education because he or she has a lot of money, not because they were educated and trained to reach that position.  An uneducated wealthy person gets just as much benefit from higher educatio as a graduate with the same earnings: they should pay the same.  

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This is just pie in the sky.  I left university (the third time) about six years ago.  I don't have a mortgage, I can't get one, and I currently can't imagine when I ever could.  The idea that one huge sum of money is 'nothing' because it's less than another huge sum of money is just daft.

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