The Problems with Student Loans and Fees in The UK and The Us

One of the main reasons for students not being able to meet their full potential is due to the fear of not being able to pay for their tuition. In the UK, students that graduate from English Universities are paying the average of £9,188 per year, while in the US it is significantly less as the average is $9,410 per year. Are the prices too high? Mental Health has recently come into consideration as well, with students seeking for help caused by student fees. Are the health problems worth it? So overall the problems are getting worse by the year. We need to put a stop to it and take into consideration how bad it has really become.

Firstly, the problem with student fees in the UK is that it goes under the radar quite easily. It isn’t a topic brought into discussions as much as it really should be. The effect of student fees can last a lifetime and isn’t a matter that should be joked about. The amount of money that must be paid back is quite high which take a long time to pay back; an answer to this is loans. Loans are commonly used in student fees; £16 billion is loaned to around 1 million students in England every year. The loans that have been taken out have reached an outstanding £105 billion at the end of March 2018. The cost of education in England is rising every year costing more and more. In the future students in England are going to graduate with the average debt of £50,800. This problem is still going under peoples noses as only the students themselves are dealing with it and that needs to change. Lowering student fees will bring the pressure from students’ shoulders so that they can focus on their studies and not on how they will pay for their studies.

Secondly, the US also has the problem of student fees, with there being approximately 5,300 universities and colleges in the United States. Over 44 million Americans together hold nearly $1.5 trillion in student debt, which means roughly one in four American adults must pay off student loans. When they graduate, the average student loan borrower has $37,172 in student loans. That is a $20,000 increase from 13 years ago. The debts scare some people away but with paying those off they are more likely to delay people from buying a house which means they must take out a mortgage, meaning that they must buy a property with a lower value. For women it is also puts them off for getting married and having children. They can also damage a person’s lifetime financial wellbeing, leading to a lower net worth, especially those who are going through financial distress with lower saving and retirement savings are not going to complete their degree. Not finishing their degree means that their dream career that they want to pursue can’t happen, which is disappointing as they have worked hard up to this point and for it to go down the drain can be upsetting. We would want them to pursue their careers for this world to evolve but that can’t happen because of student fees and we cannot let that continue.

Finally, the affects that tuition has on student’s mental health are atrocious, as the students are thinking about their future of paying off their tuition rather than focusing on their mental health and it’s affects. An upswing in the number of students at top universities are using mental health services is due to the tuition fees of £9,000, campaigners have said “adding financial stress is linked to anxiety and depression”. More than 43,000 students had to seek counselling at Russell Group institutions in the years 2014-15, according to figures gained under the Freedom of Information Act only compared to 34,000 students from only three years ago. The 28% jump in the students at university seeking counselling match with the trembling tuition fees to £9,000, the mental health charity mind pointed out. But the rates of increase varied dramatically between institutions, suggesting that other environmental factors may also have contributed to the rise. With the mental health of students becoming worse every year, this is becoming a problem that needs to be stopped. We can’t be risking others with giving more problems to worry about; they already have the stress and pressure of university. So, making them pay off tuition fees is just making this problem even worse than what it already is.

In conclusion, I believe that the point of tuition fees is pointless as they are adding more stress to student’s shoulders than they already need. This makes them out-dated and troublesome. Tuition fees are stopping people from achieving a successful future, we could have people saving lives, but they are stuck in a pit of tuition fees. This shouldn’t have been a problem in the first placing knowing that people wouldn’t be able to pay back such large amounts of money. It is common knowledge to know that everyone doesn’t have that amount of money. I personally believe that student fees are a fear that people have as they can stop people from achieving their dreams. They could be achieving such success, but they can’t as they struggle to pay off the student fees. This is an issue that needs to be fixed.

Bibliography

1. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2018/jun/student-loan-debt-has-negative-consequences-later-life-review-ioe-researchers-suggests
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_debt
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuition_fees_in_the_United_Kingdom
4. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/heres-how-much-the-average-student-loan-borrower-owes-when-they-graduate.html
5. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/student-loan-debt-harms-mental-health-careers-home-ownership-years-a8392326.html
6. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/molly-scott-cato/student-debt-mental-health_b_16967732.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_cs=JWWAFHvdmZurrTxMPs4a6A
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9. https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?destination=%2fnews%2fgrade-point%2fwp%2f2015%2f07%2f20%2fhow-many-colleges-and-universities-do-we-really-need%2f%3f&utm_term=.01fe96c2faa4
10. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/13/tuition-fees-have-led-to-surge-in-students-seeking-counselling