What I'm concerned about most is that it will be a huge "brain drain" for our nations youth. I already have £13,000 debt from my days as an undergraduate and I feel as though that is a lot. £40,000 is something that would worry me to death.
If I had finished my undergraduate degree with that much debt I wouldn't have continued onto post-graduate studies. I would have wanted to get out of university and use my degree to clear the debt, instead of staying on and increasing my debt further; regardless of how strongly I wanted to continue.
Of course this isn't just a problem for the students, it has a knock on effect for Universities, the research they do and the technical and scientific skills the UK economy is beginning to rely on more and more.
I seriously feel as though this will reduce the amount of people want to do a masters degree, which will also mean that fewer people get to do research at PhD and post doctoral levels. I'm worried that under the new system in 10 years time we're going to be saying "Where have all the scientists and engineers gone?", and I think the answer will be pretty obvious. As a nation we're starting to rely on these people more often.
Although, when I mention this to people (or people who support the new system at least) they just tend to brush me off and say "I don't think that's really a problem we'll face", so maybe I'm wrong.
(I know this isn't particularly related to the OP, but I felt like a rant)
