10 signatures reached
To: UK Government
Fund postgraduate study in the UK
We want the UK government to fund postgraduate study! If we want to create a society with respectable levels of equality and social mobility, we need equal access to the whole of the education system.
Why is this important?
If equality and social mobility are regarded as important in a society, that society will provide all with equal access to the whole education system. Either education will be free, or it will be subsidised in such a way that people are not disadvantaged based on their background.
Generations in the past have been screwed over by the government, but nothing like the current youth. If you’re tired of being told you are lucky to be able to afford a £200 iPhone by people who bought a house in central London for £21,000, then this campaign is for you.
For most of us, if you want to be one of the people who can change the situation we’re in, you’re probably going to need a certain kind of job. And to get those kinds of jobs nowadays, you’re going to need some form of postgraduate qualification. If education isn’t affordable for all, we can never expect to live in a fair society. A lack of funding for higher-education means that the only people who are able to change our country will be the very people who want it to remain the same. To protect our democracy, this must be opposed.
On 6th January 2013, the Observer printed a letter from nine UK university vice-chancellors calling for action on the 'policy vacuum' on postgraduate study. Since then, the number of students opting for postgraduate study has fallen by around 16,000 a year. This is despite the importance of postgraduate qualifications skyrocketing in that time. A Confederation of British Industry (CBI) report states that ‘anticipated changes to occupational structure mean that by 2020 nearly half of all employment will be for highly skilled roles.’ Worldwide, the number of high-level jobs that require postgraduate qualifications is growing by roughly 75% per year, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). At home, all this means less influence in our society for ordinary British people. As Gary Bell, a man from a working class background who is now a QC specialising in criminal defence, put it in the Guardian yesterday: 'The chances I had just aren't there for deprived young people today.' When Labour introduced university fees and the student loan (as opposed to the grant), Ken Livingston famously accused the Blairites of 'whipping away the ladder that they themselves had climbed.' Of the Tories' current policy, Bell added that: 'The ladder has now been not just whipped away but burned.'
The Government is currently considering providing a postgraduate loan for the 2016/17 academic year. However, this loan has already been rejected by six Russell-Group Universities for the following reasons:
1. The loan will be a maximum of £10,000. This figure is lower than the costs of many postgraduate courses and will not provide living costs, even if it covers the course fees. It therefore greatly discourages lower income students - the very problem such loans should be set up to avoid.
2. The rate of repayment is set at 9% on earnings over £21,000. This is the same repayment rate as the undergraduate loans, but they will be paid CONCURRENTLY. Therefore the real figure for almost all students will be 18%. When you add income tax and national security to this, a person with a postgraduate qualification earning £24,000 will end up taking home around £12,000. This figure is only fractionally above minimum wage and, like the minimum, is not sustainable for the vast majority of people.
3. The loan is only available to people under the age of 30. Not only does this rule out the option for any professionals who desire a change of career, but it makes it even more unlikely that people will have time to apply by the time they have paid off their undergraduate loan.
We’re looking for the 100,000 signatures required to force the MPs to debate this issue in The House of Commons. Our goal is to make campaigns such as this one unnecessary in future. In the meantime it's up to us to build a fairer society together.
THANK YOU in advance.
Please SIGN AND SHARE!
Generations in the past have been screwed over by the government, but nothing like the current youth. If you’re tired of being told you are lucky to be able to afford a £200 iPhone by people who bought a house in central London for £21,000, then this campaign is for you.
For most of us, if you want to be one of the people who can change the situation we’re in, you’re probably going to need a certain kind of job. And to get those kinds of jobs nowadays, you’re going to need some form of postgraduate qualification. If education isn’t affordable for all, we can never expect to live in a fair society. A lack of funding for higher-education means that the only people who are able to change our country will be the very people who want it to remain the same. To protect our democracy, this must be opposed.
On 6th January 2013, the Observer printed a letter from nine UK university vice-chancellors calling for action on the 'policy vacuum' on postgraduate study. Since then, the number of students opting for postgraduate study has fallen by around 16,000 a year. This is despite the importance of postgraduate qualifications skyrocketing in that time. A Confederation of British Industry (CBI) report states that ‘anticipated changes to occupational structure mean that by 2020 nearly half of all employment will be for highly skilled roles.’ Worldwide, the number of high-level jobs that require postgraduate qualifications is growing by roughly 75% per year, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). At home, all this means less influence in our society for ordinary British people. As Gary Bell, a man from a working class background who is now a QC specialising in criminal defence, put it in the Guardian yesterday: 'The chances I had just aren't there for deprived young people today.' When Labour introduced university fees and the student loan (as opposed to the grant), Ken Livingston famously accused the Blairites of 'whipping away the ladder that they themselves had climbed.' Of the Tories' current policy, Bell added that: 'The ladder has now been not just whipped away but burned.'
The Government is currently considering providing a postgraduate loan for the 2016/17 academic year. However, this loan has already been rejected by six Russell-Group Universities for the following reasons:
1. The loan will be a maximum of £10,000. This figure is lower than the costs of many postgraduate courses and will not provide living costs, even if it covers the course fees. It therefore greatly discourages lower income students - the very problem such loans should be set up to avoid.
2. The rate of repayment is set at 9% on earnings over £21,000. This is the same repayment rate as the undergraduate loans, but they will be paid CONCURRENTLY. Therefore the real figure for almost all students will be 18%. When you add income tax and national security to this, a person with a postgraduate qualification earning £24,000 will end up taking home around £12,000. This figure is only fractionally above minimum wage and, like the minimum, is not sustainable for the vast majority of people.
3. The loan is only available to people under the age of 30. Not only does this rule out the option for any professionals who desire a change of career, but it makes it even more unlikely that people will have time to apply by the time they have paid off their undergraduate loan.
We’re looking for the 100,000 signatures required to force the MPs to debate this issue in The House of Commons. Our goal is to make campaigns such as this one unnecessary in future. In the meantime it's up to us to build a fairer society together.
THANK YOU in advance.
Please SIGN AND SHARE!
