Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Tuition Fees

As I was listening to the news today on tuition fee proposals, I thought it was ironic that my first appointments of the day were to meet about Access to Learning Fund and other student hardship fund awards. The current arrangements of fees necessitate students facing significant financial challenges to complete courses. The recession has accentuated things further by removing many temporary and casual jobs from the labour market, which students use to offset some of the financial pressures (and hardship fund assessments make certain assumptions about a possible part-time income) Furthermore, parents are under pressure themselves to provide any contribution to the finances of their student offspring.

If the fee cap is raised, then I hope that the provision for hardship funds, students support and other resources are also increased to ensure that the worst effects are mitigated.

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