Funding the future
Wednesday 25th June 2008, 2:10PM BST.
DECIDING on the future of student loans will be a tough assignment for the States.
This week we revealed how it was looking increasingly unlikely that they would come in for at least four years. If a requete by recently elected Education member Matt Fallaize is successful later this year, the current grants system will stay in place until a review in 2011.
The cost of further education is always going to be an emotive subject.
For deputies it is also an issue that could seriously affect their chance of survival at the next ballot box. This is a matter very close to the hearts of the voting public.
Saddling undergraduates with loans of around £9,000 before they even start their course isn’t ideal for either them or their parents.
As many UK students will tell you, the additional pressure can be hard to take, along with their studies.
And that is before all the other challenges that living away from home can present.
Many of our brightest young things may even give up on the opportunity to go to university at all: some current students say they would not have stayed on if loans were in force.
Other potential graduates may feel loathe to see their finances put any pressure on their parents. Worse still, they may leave their island home altogether.
Which is why the final decision our States eventually makes will be crucial. Public finances are always stretched and it is hard to say how the economic climate will shape up in coming years. That is why, presumably, the requete suggests a review date be built in.
What seems just as worrying are some of the concerns already being expressed about the proposed loans system itself.
Fears have been raised in some quarters that it would be too expensive to administer through a third party and that the payback terms fail to provide much leeway. Chasing up students who default or fail to return could prove another expensive exercise.
That is why it is important that States members give the logistics of both sides of this difficult political debate serious thought.
After all, it is their future in your hands.
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The cost of this funding may run into millions. My understanding is that the States have negotiated reduced levels of fees at certain Universities but the names of these Universities do not appear on the Education website or anywhere else I have searched.
Any student faced with a choice of Universities and with the likelihood of paying part/all of their own fees will, all other things being equal, choose the one with the cheaper fee. Publishing this information would benefit both the student and the States, the latter because the finance office would be able to check that the amount demanded by the University was the same as that agreed. Mistakes are not unknown.
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