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Government study shows students willing to pay higher fees
University students would be willing to pay more for degree courses that would result in the highest earning careers according to a recent government-commissioned study by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES). Such a system has only been applied in Australia so far, where students pay double the amount for a degree in accountancy, law, and economics and also in education or nursing in order to find a high paid graduate job in each of the respective fields.
The study showed that from the 81 students questioned only those who specifically belonged to a poorer background were willing to pay higher fees for courses that would lead to high-earning jobs. It also found that students were much less inclined to pay more for top universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, arguably cutting a hole in the initial principle of charging more for better opportunities.
Thomas Usher, a research fellow at IES and one of the authors of the study, - The Role of Finance in the Decision-making of Higher Education Applicants and Students-, stated: "Across the board, but particularly among students from non-traditional backgrounds, there was a willingness to pay differential fees for different subjects. But when asked whether they would be prepared to pay higher fees for a particular kind of university, the majority were reflectively against this."
Applied in the UK this system would allow universities, the next target for government spending cuts, to receive adequate funding in the omnipresent reality of a lurking recession. However, the hike in fees would create even further economic prejudice towards the middle classes who are already strained from not being poor enough to get support, but not wealthy enough to cover fees by themselves.
According to the National Union of Students it would be unreliable and misleading if different courses charged different fees and it would consign the poorest students to "bargain basement" degrees. Wes Streeting, NUS president, stated: "We believe allowing different institutions to charge different fees risks providing an elite system for the few that can afford it and a second-class experience for the many who cannot.”
Meanwhile, German owned budget supermarket Aldi, is offering university leavers the highest paid graduate job in the UK with a starting annual salary of £40,000 along with the usual benefits such as private healthcare and a pension scheme, as well as an Audi A4. The Aldi recruitment service specifies on its Website that graduates are given important roles and diverse responsibilities and within a year can become area organisers for four to six stores, giving them the opportunity to flourish with the supermarket giant.
The IES study's findings were used by Universities, who are going to face an additional cut of £ 600m by 2013, as an opportunity to argue for higher tuition fees.
More support should go into apprenticeships, diplomas, access courses and other types of further education rather than higher. University should not be the "be all and end all" of life and way of gaining a career... unless e.g. you're wanting to be a doctor.
By Faith Victoria Allen on 11.2.2010
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