Machina said:
I completely disagree. I'm 24, recently graduated from a UK university with not insignificant levels of debt, and have zero sympathy for the protestors.
First of all, the scenes last night were disgusting; why should taxpayers pay for a three year extended holiday for these people? The people who spent all night vandalising public property, urinating against war memorials, laying waste to some of this country's most famous landmarks and hospitalising police officers. And they feel the country owes them something?
Secondly, I question how many of those people even know what they're protesting about, and not just because of the misinformation being spread by the NUS, but also because these demonstrations are clearly being hijacked by those who just want to have a fun night out smashing stuff up, and it's completely undermining any public sympathy there was for the students.
No one is forced to go to university, it's entirely optional. The concept of 50% university attendance dreamt up by the last government was absolutely ridiculous and completely unsustainable financially. If you want a system of free university education then you need to re-introduce exclusivity and drastically reduce the number of university places. Something tells me the NUS would oppose that as well, which means you're left with current levels of university attendance and a growing financial black hole in the higher education budget.
Nothing is free in this world - if you want something, you pay for it. I for one am bloody glad that fees are going up. University was treated as a 3 year gap year by most students when I was at university. Why should someone who leaves school at 18 and who goes out to work 40 hours a day have to pay for another 18 year old to spend a year getting pissed on a university campus before they even begin to do any real studying? Under these plans, students will start paying for the real cost of their tuition, as they should imo, but only once they start their careers - there are no up-front costs. Seems more than fair to me.
|
Meanwhile stateside...
Almost all college tuition protesters in my state have been peaceful. The state spending has been rather loose, while pinching the students as hard as possible. Should it be the college students penalty for states/federal gov'ts who have a loose budget? China is laughing their heads off right now. Rather than investing in education the west allowed corporate heads to go unchecked and useless mega-bills supporting random segments of the economy.
Some of these reports are sick, and it could have occurred in the U.S., or any EU nation. However, this is not the norm. Most students realize why the protests occur and more broadly, why education should be supported.
Also some students at the university level do waste their time, but to penalize the majority b/c of this is uncalled for.
