22nd October 2010 12:24
By Harriet Boulding
As a tutor and a postgraduate student, the Browne report on higher education funding and student finance filled me with horror. The report proposed that the cap on tuition fees should be lifted, leaving the path open for universities to charge potentially unlimited fees, and ensuring that students will leave university with a staggering amount of debt. I am full of admiration for my students who, in the face of ridiculous competition for places and huge levels of debt should they get a place, are still determined to go to university.
Tutoring arts subjects including English, Anthropology and Sociology is particularly poignant, as arts and social sciences were singled out in the report to suffer the brunt of the £3.2 billion cuts to higher education funding. The report proposes that funding should be concentrated in science and industry, in the hope that this will boost the economy. In the meantime, students who study arts and social sciences many find themselves having to bear the entire cost of their education. I find myself thinking about all the invaluable jobs and contributions to British society which have been made by arts and social science graduates. Indeed, the majority of politicians have arts and social science degrees, as do social policy researchers.
If we follow Browne’s logic, that society can’t afford to invest in these areas, it follows that students paying for their own education in these subjects have zero obligation to our society. They should get their degrees, move abroad and not take one look back at the government who rejected them, a government who is putting our education and culture into serious decline. Britain has one of the lowest public investments in higher education in the western world, and yet our universities struggle on, still managing to lead the world in research on a budget that would make American universities laugh. As tutors, how are we supposed to encourage students to apply for arts subjects, when lack of funding is going to close departments and halt research all over the country? It is necessary to voice our concerns immediately and strongly, as the results of these proposals will be disasterous.