Increase in tuition fees for ‘Good’ universities.2 min read

The UK is one of the most expensive places in the world to go into higher education, and now it looks like it is set to become more expensive.
In 2012, students watched the annual tuition fee of £3,000 soar to a staggering £9,000 and were forced to accept this. Now the government has plans to increase our fees again but only for universities that are dubbed ‘elite’ and ‘good’. This new ranking system will change the way our universities and more importantly our students will be looked at and ranked.
As a child, it was never a dream of mine to go into higher education, simply because no one in my family had been, growing up and realising that University could be an option; I was then put off by the price. My parents taught me from a young age that as an adult you have responsibilities and one of those responsibilities would be to pay off any debts, so naturally when I realised that I would be leaving my education with a debt over £40,000 I was put off. Now half way through my studies, I realise that all my hard work and commitment and that leap of faith to leave home and move to London to study, could amount to nothing because the university I attend didn’t charge the ‘elite’ price but only £9,000 a year tuition fees.
Studying at University has never been free; and you can see this as 20 years ago there was a clear cut in who was going to university and who went straight into employment, this changed with the introduction of the student loans company, and gradually over the years more people from the working class have been applying to go to university. But will the proposed increase in tuition fees for some universities takes us back 20 years to a system that prejudices the poor?
2016 has already seen the scrapping of the maintenance grants, which will mean people from lower income families that need support, will be forced to pay off a bigger debt as they won’t receive any help. Will the eventual outcome be working class people not applying for the top universities like Oxford and Cambridge because they don’t want to leave university with over £40,000 in debt, or will it simply limit them to the standard universities that only charge £9,000 a year? This increase in tuition fees only for elite universities will create a two-tier hierarchy in our education system. Over time this will only deepen the divide between the upper class and working class population.
It is worth asking, since when did going to University shift from learning and creating opportunities for everyone in the UK to being based on wealth and prestige? Our higher education system shouldn’t be a business where tuition fees increase based on rankings. We should encourage people to go to university, and not try hindering them by intimidating debts and competition.