Neither is the solution to price all but the rich out of it, or condemn pupils and teachers to decrepit facilities. No Government in the past two decades has got it right but this bunch of chancers are in the process of doing massive damage to our long-term future through dogmatic short-sightedness.

The majority of students will pay less under the new system - it was just shockingly communicated to people

Must have been! How does £9000 a year tuition fees at a number of univeristies (when it was expected that onl Oxbridge would charge that much) work out to be less?

Incorrect. By the time you add on interest (not charged before) and the inability to pay the loan off early the average student will be much worse off over the duration of his career. An 'average' student could easily end up paying >£80k for his/her degree. And this is all money that the Government has to pay up front, so it won't even save the taxpayer any cash for years. The entire policy was based on the incredibly stupid idea that the majority of Universities would [ivoluntarily[/i charge less than they could do.

Still, that's what happens when you put an idiot in charge of education and another in charge of the economy.

the limit at which you pay back has been increased by 6k (from the limit set by labour) so that you do not pay anything back unless you earn over 21k, then it is only 9% of anything over that.

So if you earn 22k on the new system you pay back £90 per year, on the old system you pay back £540, the total amount is almost inconsequential as very few people will actually pay back that amount

You sound like my ex-wife: she'd come home from shopping, telling me how much she had saved, rather than how much she'd spent

Its the view of this as a "loan" that is wrong - it should be thought of as more of a graduate tax with an upper limit on the amount you have to pay

But you'd still be paying off the full tuition fees, surely? And when Anytown Poly is charging £9k a year for a 3 year course, that's a lot to payback before any living costs are added, regardless of how much you have to earn before you start paying.

anyone who voted for their LOCAL politicians on NATIONAL policies is a dimwit.

I fear for HCC, special measures inside 36 months methinks.

Its not traditional debt in that form - you don't need to pay it back, the government just takes it out with your PAYE when you are eligible, if you never pay the full amount back, nothing happens

- and it doesnt effect your credit rating

Hardly an encouragement for the graduates of tomorrow to push themselves into decent jobs

for the sake of £40 a month?