Growing up in the States the issue of college tuition was always high on the political agenda. Ensuring that average citizens are able to send their children to college has been a commitment articulated by every president since I was born. The reason for this is that education is understood to be a basic public good and also the key to social mobility.

Growing up in the States also gave me a skewed perception about the costs associated with going to 'college' as we call it there. You were alright going 'in state' at reduced fees but if your particular state of residence didn't have a university suited to your chosen course of study you would have to face going out of state and paying corresponding out of state prices. If it was a private university, everyone was subjected to these higher market prices: the one I was looking at was between £30-40k per year in tuition fees, let alone living costs, room and board, books, travel up and back across the country, and so on.

It was an easy decision, then, when I applied through the UCAS system and came to study in the UK instead.

It's also why the Browne report and related discussion about letting the market into higher education fills me with dread. In America, grants and scholarships are offered to those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who are exceptionally bright (or both). But they are few and far between, and it is not surprising that Ivy League and private colleges have on average the highest fees of all. The result is that the average family struggles to make the necessary savings required to send their children to higher education.

The smartest, highest achieving students should go to the top universities, not the richest. Letting the market in will drive fees up at the best universities and drive fees down at the worst. This may be all part of the plan of driving under-performing universities to close but it will without a doubt also drive inequalities to increase.

While a British system would continue to provide student loans, it is foolish to think that these higher fees won't be a barrier to the less well off in society. Furthermore, as a country finally coming to terms with the problem of our national debt, it is scandalous that our resolution is to transfer it into the personal debt of the next generation.

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