Amidst the excitement of the Chilean miners being released from the San Jose mine Lord Browne released his much leaked review into university funding and tuition fees. Many tweets and comments followed as students, parents and politicians realised that an UK university, very highly valued across the world was now going to cost.
My personal view is that it sits uneasily with Michael Gove’s desire to move the poorest of children through the education system to achieve as much as the privileged students of Westminster (well that’s what his conference speech said anyway!). Unfortunately, at the end of school career in a New School or an Academy, who have been set free from the shackles of big government, these students will hit a juddering halt as they have to weigh up an excellent undergraduate education with debts of between £18,000 and £38,000.
Having looked at Lord Browne’s review (you can read it here: )
there is something about the numbers that troubles me.
If we are to assume that one of the arguments for charging for university is that graduates will have increased prosperity then the figures need looking at closely – we aren’t talking about a small amount of money.
Income
Lifetime earning benefits of graduates: £120,000 gross (see note 10 in the report) – or £2,727 per year (if you retire at 65)
This equals £227 per month on average.
Costs
Cost per year of tuition fees and living expenses (if you don’t receive Child Benefit): £9750 (based on £6k yearly fees)
Total investment in university education (3 year course) £29,250
Interest @2% if paid off in 10 years (approx): £5000
Total Cost = £34,250
The benefit
£120,000 – £34,250 = £85,750
But you will be working for an additional 3 years (while not at Uni). Lets say that is £18k per year so …
£85,750 – £36,180 = £49,570
Now lets net that off at 33% for basic tax and NI contributions …
£33,211.
Over 44 years this works out at £754 per annum or JUST £62.90 per month.
Still worth it?
Amidst the excitement of the Chilean miners being released from the San Jose mine Lord Browne released his much leaked review into university funding and tuition fees. Many tweets and comments followed as students, parents and politicians realised that an UK university, very highly valued across the world was now going to cost.
My personal [...]