Student loan debt surpasses credit card debt.

[Kantor]

SamuelRSmith said:

Kantor said:

jonager said:

why is it so expensive to go to college in usa?

The government doesn't subsidise the best universities, and it only subsidises state universities in your own state.

British universities are significantly cheaper, because they are all state universities, but it's paid for by taxes.

This is something I don't agree with. I personally believe that Universities should be able to charge what they want for tuition fees, and for British students to stop being subsidized by the state (and this is coming from someone who's starting University in three weeks).

I don't see how this would be a class issue, as University fees tend to be paid after the student has left the University - and the jobs that students will be getting should be paying more than enough to offset the increased cost of University. Like I said, this won't be limiting to the poor people of this country because they're not expected to pay up until they, themselves, hit a certain level of income (as is how Student Finance works) - but the increased costs of Uni will make some people reconsider, and, thus only those who receive the greatest benefit in going will go - helping to fight off this "education inflation" that we have been seeing in the past couple of decades.

More importantly, however, is that this will mean that the Universities will no longer need to mug off foreign students to help cover the costs of teaching Britons. This will allow British Universities to become more competitive in the international educational market. We do currently do quite well in these regards, (second only to the United States in terms of attracting international students). However, this is a title that is slowly slipping. Britain used to attract a lot of Chinese students - however, more and more are deciding to stay closer to home: either staying in China, or going to Universities in South Korea, and other developed areas in the region (not to mention the ever-shrinking market of China - what with the one-child policy).

British Universities could become more competitive, by offering lower tuition fees to foreign students (which are currently extortionate). The overall increases in revenues both from charging domestic students more, and attracting more foreign students, will allow the Universities to reinvest, improving the Universities, and improving the value of a British degree.

The first duty of the British government is to the British people. Ridiculously cheap university tuition is a sort of way of thanking everyone for paying such exorbitant taxes on everything. The only reason we pay higher taxes than pretty much everyone else in the world (combined :/) is that the government subsidises everything. Hell, private school here is government subsidised, in a way.

Not everybody who goes to university is going to get a job which pays them enormous amounts of money. Even at today's relatively cheap rate, it's a good £30,000 you need to save up for a three year course. That will be a year's salary for the best of university graduates. Plus the interest on the student loan.

As for foreign students...look, they haven't lived in this country. They're not entitled to anything here, least of all cheap university education, which is a luxury even amongst our own people. International student prices here are still much cheaper than, say, America, but I think it's only fair that if a non-UK-resident wants to come here and study at some of the best universities in the world, they should have to pay a large amount of money. Harvard and Yale aren't cheap by any stretch of the imagination for foreigners, and Oxford and Cambridge shouldn't be either.