Interesting. Many of us hark back to the days when there were no tuition fees. But now we have more people in higher education, although it’s not quite what it seems… Looking at the HEIPR data, the current rates are about 41% of the current school leavers are entering higher education, including 17-20 year olds. Then there is a trickle of people aged 21-30 making it upto 47% of an equivalent single year cohort, but this also includes people doing HN qualifications at FE colleges. The UCAS figures show that 33% of 18 year old school leavers accepted a place at university. And the rate for Boys is lower and Girls higher…
And the are some things now which are now a university course, and weren’t before. Eg Nursing.
I have a 20 year old starting year 2 of a 4 year degree. He gets the minimum loan, so we are paying accommodation and I suspect the sadly predictable deaths of various elderly relatives will pay off the bits he owes at the other side plus a house deposit. He and his younger brother are lucky that way.
As a medical student for 6 years on minimum grant (about £400 a year) 30 years ago, My parents still had to cover a lot of my costs, and didn’t always do so, again leading to me using up legacies to keep going at a time when I really had no time for a job in the last 3 years (worked solidly through 4 summer hols before that). But didn’t have to pay tuition fees.
The more realistic assessments of how much being a graduate in different subjects actually adds to an income might make people think about whether to go to uni, if they actually looked.
in the South East the cost of housing is so high that I begin to hope my kids and my partners will end up working elsewhere in the UK or Europe. Otherwise we will never get rid of them!