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Wanna Argument?
Funding UK Higher Education: From Elitism to Mass Market
Rarely in the life of the Blair Labour Government has education caused such drama. The survival of the Government's plans for higher education funding, by a wafer-thin majority of five, brings to a temporary halt the excitement of recent weeks. This 'Wanna Argument' looks at the key issues involved in the plans to charge top-up fees for higher education. Our familiar 'talking heads' debate the main points, examining the UK's problem in relation to the international picture; finding out what's wrong with the current position and asking if we have ever had a 'free' higher education system.
Free access for all |
Not if I have to pay for it |
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Get the drinks in, would you? |
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Oh, my round is it? |
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Just trying to break the habits
of a lifetime and save some
money, that's all.
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Not like you.
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Well, our Charmaine's applying
to go to university and I can see
financial problems up the road.
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Hope you've got a friendly bank manager.
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Exactly. What about your Damon?
He going for the student life?
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Thought about it, wanted to earn some money though.
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Nice to have the choice I suppose. |
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Exactly what I said to him. He can't believe the likes of us didn't go...
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So why do they all have to
go to university nowadays?
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You'd think they'd be sick of education by then. |
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OK we ought to be supporting it through
our taxes, if it's really as important as that.
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Well, there's Reg's boys; one a teacher and the other a merchant banker.
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Yep, and the Saharwa twins next door to
me, both at law school.
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But it used to be free didn't it, a university education; I remember all those mates of yours going off for a few weeks' holiday every couple of months. Maybe they should pay for the privilege, it might cut down on the skiving and make them work a bit harder! |
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OK, that's put me straight.
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Yes, but what's all the fuss about now? If students pay something and we pay through our taxes, why the need for all this grief about top-ups? |
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I get grief over top-ups whenever
my mobile runs out of credit.
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Unless you borrow mine, that is. |
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What's going to replace it, then? | |
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And that'll sort it then?
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What do you think?
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Nothing's ever that simple.
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Quite! |
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Um, wasn't this supposed make the system clearer? |
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Are you still in the dark then? |
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Put it this way, I think I've found Charmaine her first assignment. |
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What's that? |
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Make sense of student funding in less than fifty words. |
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Wow, savage task!
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As Charmaine will probably say. |
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