Students told to pay back mis-sold loans are being blamed for a crisis the government created
The university system is buckling under a funding system that was always doomed to fail, writes Louisa Munch
As if the student loan system wasn’t crushing young people enough, students are now being told they have to pay back maintenance loans and childcare grants that were mis-sold.
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As a teacher at a university and a 27-year-old with 100k in student debt, I see the university system buckling under a funding system that was always doomed to fail.
The news today once again places the responsibility on the individual student, both in terms of paying back the loan and taking accountability for a mistake that they did not make. This was a mistake made solely by the SLC in granting full-time maintenance loans to weekend students, but the real mistake here is the student loan system as a whole.
What the government has done, since the introduction of the loans system, is turn the university into a business and the students into consumers. Higher education is not a personal investment, it is a public good and should be treated as such. Instead, students are working upwards of two jobs to afford their rent, while being expected to complete all their classwork and assignments and do their own research.
For academics like myself, we are working upwards of 50 hours a week on low salaries, precarious contracts and trying to be there for students whose mental health is at breaking point under these conditions.
The system is completely unsustainable, and as departments face continuous cuts and redundancies, the only future for universities under this system is one that takes us back to the days of ivory towers for only the elite who can afford the privilege of a higher education.
Higher education does not just offer a degree; it offers a chance to think critically about the problems we are facing. It offers a space to challenge and critique systems of power that, at a time when people feel most powerless, are absolutely vital to society and democracy.
Young people should have the choice, opportunity, and autonomy to decide what they want to do with their future and their lives, and not be financially punished for choosing to continue in education. Now more than ever, we need young people who can think critically about the world and the crisis we face in a post-truth, social media, AI age. By supporting young people in higher education, you support the future of a nation and the creation of alternative ideas.
This is the least a government could do given the crisis this generation faces under climate catastrophe, cost of living crisis and rising authoritarianism.
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Louisa Munch is a social media influencer and academic who speaks on economics and the rise of the far right. She teaches critical theory and English at the University of Warwick.
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