Education: Fees? They are picking on the poor as ususal

As a student I appreciate the finer intricacies of the funding issues surrounding higher education at the moment. My point is this: why should I pay twice for my education? I will, I assume, benefit greatly from having a degree and pay lots more taxes than I would otherwise if I didn't go to university.

So why should I pay anything towards tuition fees? While I realise that the state cannot in realistic terms afford about pounds 4,000 a year to feed and clothe me, I expect that while I am toiling away 10 hours a day, busting a gut to make myself educated, I can do it without ending up skint and with a good degree. It looks to me that the biggest test in universities today is whether you can afford to eat or not, whether you can get a job to keep the bank off your back, not whether you pass the examinations.

Is it not the case that when a university education was actually worth something and a pleasure for the academic to do, it was free to all the wealthy lords and upper classes? Now that the plebs want a slice of the cake, the same rich people tell us that we have to pay!

Tony Blair and New Labour should write a new White Paper on "How to shaft all the poor people in society and smile when you are doing it".

DJR Powell

Atomic Weapons Establishment

Aldermaston, Berks