An article published today in the Guardian has highlighted the real challenge the Government and the HE sector face in ensuring continued access to HE. Whatever your opinion on the politics around HE funding, and indeed whatever the new ‘HE market’ landscape will look like in 2012, we are faced with the fact that fees will be higher across the sector. But articles like the one published today, and the rhetoric of debt in constant use by anti-cuts protestors and indeed Her Majesty’s Opposition are having a real impact on prospective students and parents in lower-income families. Of course those of us involved in Higher Education know that this perception is wrong – paying graduate contributions does not represent a debt in the same way as that of a credit card, for example it won’t affect mortgage applications etc, and indeed higher education will be free at the point of use in terms of fees.
