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Going to university used to be simple.
If you had the right grades then, either you, your parents or your local loan authority gave £1,100 to your chosen university for tuition fees. You then took out a loan for livings costs and set off. What do you think of top-up fees?
 But, now the government is considering top-up fees or a graduate tax, a system where students pay extra fees back after their course has finished. Undergraduates already have to pay annual tuition fees of up to £1,100 at all universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is feared that increasing these costs will deter poorer students from entering higher education.  Top-up fees are totally unacceptable.
A child should have access to education on the basis of what they can achieve not what they can afford. There is already a huge gap between the number of working class and middle class students at Oxbridge and top-up fees only widen the divide. | | Raksha McCann, parent |
The proposed payment scheme is meant to become clear later this month when the government finally releases its proposals. However, the top-up fees have also raised the concern about the simplistic relationship between education and earnings. A large number of graduates tend to take up comparitively low paid jobs because they believe in what they are doing.
The top-up fees may encourage people to only take up well-paying jobs as this will be the only way they can reduce their debts quickly. Research by the NUS has estimated that the cost of going to university is now as high as £40,000 per head. Top-up fees, according to the The Oxford Student, put this figure as high as £60,000 at elite universities like Oxford University. Read below other people's comments on university top-up fees:
It is dismaying that so many opinionated students quote the age old socialist mantra of education is a right not a priviledge.
They seem to forget that it is the taxpayer, ie not them, who fork out for them to get wonderfull graduate education.
I failed to complete my degree, and to be totally honest, it's done me no harm, I'm MD of an internationally involved manufacturing company, and that before i was 30, so i don't think that hundereds of graduates in media studies or humanities or classics or some dead foriegn language actually benfits the rest of the population apart from the removal of vast sums of tax payers money.
Maybe if the students agreed to work through their dgrees and support themselves, there wouldn't be the low success rate or second rate qualifications.
Then maybe with all the money left, the firefighters could have the 40% pay rise they deserve when compared with the life saving skills of the average oxford student. | | Toby barton, Bicester |
| How can the Government be so two faced? University for all OR you will have to pay more - its not possible to have both. If this happens, then Universities will definitely have more demands made on them by parents i.e. why a three year course when the work appears to fit into two years, more explanation of days missed by tutors, and more reporting/accountability to parents. Are they prepared for that? | | Pat Baskerville, Letchworth Garden City |
We've had a version of this system, here in Australia for some time now and it does NOT work! Universities here are cutting back on staff numbers and are still looking for added funding and student numbers are down. I attend a uni as a mature-age part-time student and I've seen it all first hand over these past seven odd years! The number of courses offered has decreased as well as entire departments closing down. | | Jennifer, Melbourne Australia |
Top-up fees are being justified by a funding crisis in higher education. What funding crisis? 18 months ago, universities increased their pay offer by 50%, in fact they even paid for staff to strike (even though this was taxpayers money). Many university staff are millionaires. Graduate and overseas students pay the full cost and more for their courses. Where has this money gone? Is it not time that universities 'modernised' and the areas where they squander public money be addressed. Our hospitals and schools cannot dip into the public purse any time they please, why should universities. Doesn't this need to be done before increasing fees without any clear basis or justification? | | Philip Stanmore, Kidlington |
If top-up fees are introduced, then the government can wave goodbye to its 50% attendance target. The only thing that top up fees will achieve will be to create a two-tier education system and this so-called UK Ivy League, based on elitist principles that favour the rich and privileged. | | Jo Salmon, Wales |
Here at Oxford, officials are being extremely evasive about whether they will introduce top-up fees or how much these fees will be. Many of us may have to leave as we will be unable to afford these fees, means tested or not. The government is in danger of making the old Oxbridge stereotypes come true by creating universities for the rich. I can see why so many governments need to charge fees - of the government will not make more funding available soon, many institutions will be bankrupt. | | AJR, Oxford University |
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Listen to the protest in Oxford
