The reform of university financing & specifically the student loan system will only come when we reject the notion that most (or indeed all) the benefits of attending university are captured by graduates (the business model that sees them pick up the entire headline cost of tuition).
A university educated cohort is a major public good in many ways & so the Govt. *should* take on a significant proportion (if not all) the cost(s)....
@ChrisMayLA6 Primary & secondary education are almost universally accepted as a common good. They are not just paid out of the public purse for all children as a right, but participation is actively enforced by the courts.
Yet somehow, tertiary eduction is treated by all major political parties as a luxury good, whose consumers must drown in debt until they retire.
If a child learns well, they get praised. But after 18, learning gets an automatic sentence to the Marshalsea. #Dickens needed!
I think its all tied up to the pervasive amateurism (and generalist) in our political class - they cannot see how specialists & specialisms are actually useful for society because they are all amateurish generalists
@ChrisMayLA6 @2legged
But in that case, what's their excuse for getting rid of Adult Continuing Education, all those free or cheap evening classes that used to be run for anyone to take in a vast variety of subject for the love of general learning?
Truth is they are no longer amateur generalists, they are privileged incompetents who don't want anyone else to learn anything but just to grind away in mindless work to generate their profits.
I think they can be both amateur generalists *and* privileged incompetents.... but I agree they don't want other to learn anything unless it absolutely necessary to employers
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Claire McNab
HighlandLawyer