Thursday, February 11, 2010
Raising student fees without breaking the bank
Further to the comments on universities, funding and students, Philip Booth of the IEA has an article in today's Independent giving his view on how fees can be raised without causing immediate pain to students (link). Essentially, he proposes putting the extra students' fees on top of their student loan, and letting them pay them off through PAYE. This delayed payment would then be an asset for the university against which the institution could borrow, raising funds for expansion and so on. It's not a bad idea, and certainly would allow universities to vary their fees without forcing people to save up immediately.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Sounds like more cheap debt, which will exacerbate the problem. The problem isn't the fees; it's the spending. The way to get the spending under control is to put more of the burden for tuition directly on students. As a result, fewer students will enroll, and universities will be forced to either change their tactics or die.
Sure, it's not without its problems, but you're forgetting that we're starting from a different place. We have subsidised fees to a greater extent than you, and what is being proposed is that the subsidy be reduced, effectively by letting students pay the fees later.
I see. Our main problem is subsidized loans to students, so any means of making it easier to borrow money will make the fiscal meltdown of American higher ed even worse.
Which is, of course, exactly the policy that Obama is pursuing.
Post a Comment