Those dedicated social engineers The Russell Group (the twenty or so very rich research universities which consider themselves 'top') have decided that the poor, those with dependent families and others without massive cash reserves and family backing shouldn't go to university.
They've told the government that students should pay commercial rates of interest, rather than the effective zero-interest on their student loans. You currently leave university owing c. £20,000-30,000: imagine the debt under commercial rules. They also want you to start paying more of your loan back, earlier (currently, you pay 9% of your monthly income once you earn £15,000 - which I imagine makes life quite difficult if you have kids, run a car, live in London etc. etc.).
It's a horrible commercial, individualist move which proves that these institutions don't understand what education is for: not to enrich individuals who can then afford to pay the money back, but to benefit society as a whole. Governments subsidise education with taxation because it's a social good. Would you become a primary school teacher, social worker or lab technician on £22,000 if you owed £50,000 for the privilege of acquiring the necessary qualifications?
Wow, talk about selfish and reactionary. Those particular universities are notoriously difficult to get into if you don't go to a private school, so their intake won't suffer - but everybody else will. Back to the fields, peasants!
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