I confess to feeling deeply ambivalent, not to say conflicted, by the student fee debate. If the country will not stomach tax increases to pay for higher education (wishful thinking aside) and the deficit cannot be cut in different ways (a bit more debatable, but where would you cut?), then higher education has to be reduced in quality, reach or both unless other funds can be found. Graduate taxes or deferred fees are the only remaining options.
Whilst the evidence suggests top-up fees have not deterred working class students from entering higher education, the increases the Government is allowing will be of a significantly different order. Changes to the terms of repayment may soften the blow, particularly for the poorest students. I suspect most would-be students will take the (delayed) pain, hold their noses and head off to university when the time comes. There will, though, I believe be some impact: both on the types of course that students study and the numbers coming from particular backgrounds. Some students WILL be put off by the debt and those will be coming from poorer backgrounds.
