Increased Tuition - The Baby Boomers Have The Last Laugh

The move by the government to increase tuition fees is a major blow to generational equality. The baby boomers will once again have the last laugh. As they sit on their lucrative pensions, live in their appreciated homes, and look back at their free degrees- they laugh loud and they do so by favouring an absurd rise in tuition fees. The same people voting for an increase in tuition fees voice concerns relating to the National Deficit- “an ongoing deficit will cripple the economy” they say-  they demand action and come up with policies where payments are made from those who do not yet have any voting rights. I understand that the current university tuition system structure is not sustainable, and I appreciate the government’s attempt to tackle this. Universities in this country need more funding in order to compete in today’s increasingly competitive and global market. But before picking into the pockets of everyone why do we not ask all those who attended universities for free and with total wealth putting them in the top 20 percentile of the population pay back to the system that so positively benefited them? Surely that is the “fair” thing to do. Lord Browne speaks about fairness, but he is so out of touch with reality that fairness is merely a selling point in his campaign. The real dillemma is that the people setting policies are the very same people who have undoubtedly disproportionally benefited from the system and contributed to the deficit. Now they would like a quick stop to “cheap” tuition fees- this would be their last attempt to keep the status quo of their beloved children unchanged. Affordable higher education is a wealthy mans only threat to the prevention of transferring real wealth to their children. Education provides hope for the poor and a threat to the rich. An educated population can not be exploited. University is the only place where everyone is equal, where social class is put aside and an individual’s abilities outshine their social background. Fairness at Eton College is different to fairness in the United Kingdom. Mr Cameron putting his daughter in a public school is top class marketing- but let us see where she goes to college?  Education should not be an exclusive experience for the wealthy, a mechanism in which the wealthy can signal themselves as exactly that creating a unique networking opportunity for the rich. Let us please put equality and hope back in the University system. Let us start by recouping fees from the baby boomers, and for once ask those that benefited to pay for what they received.