| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Geography Lesson | |
| Posted by: | Guy Lambert | |
| Date/Time: | 01/12/10 13:56:00 |
| Gosh how clever you are Richard and Steve. That really added so much to the debate. Sam's right of course, the question is how we pay for the cost of HE and indeed FE. In the good old days it was paid for out of taxes, on the basis that it was good for the nation and that the beneficiaries would end up paying for it anyway as they would command greater incomes. It's not clear to me what has changed: people getting well educated is good for the nation and our proportion of people gaining degrees is still very far from world-beating. In the short term this does nothing whatever for the deficit: in fact my guess it will make it worse - the direct subsidy to the Universities is cut, but replaced by hugely increased subventions to the Student Loan Company which will (probably) get repaid sometime in the future, probably starting around 5 years hence. And of course Humanities will get no government subsidy at all, so the chances of our world-competitive creative industries remaining so will be seriously jeopardised. Anybody who has benefited from tertiary education in the past, whether free or nearly free, should reflect on this: it is a further transfer of wealth from the (generally) impecunious young to the (generally) prosperous older generations, many of whom also benefit from pension funds etc which will not be available to these same younger people. But of course oldies can be relied upon to vote so they (we) will continue to be pampered until someone cries "enough!" |