Edward Rayne

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since May 17, 2000

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May 17, 2000, on Tuition-free MIT:
Next year I will be beginning my undergraduate natural sciences course at Cambridge University, UK. Untill two years ago all higher education in Britain was free and students were given government grants to help cover their living costs during the course. This system has been changed now so that students are offered a loan of up to UKP 4,000 ($6,000) each year and will have to pay up to UKP 1000 ($1500) in tution fees each year. All of these are means tested. When this was first announced there was a huge outcry from the public and since devolution the Scottish parliament has said that they will pay all of their students tution fees. The idea of having to pay $100,000 to attend a university of similar stature strikes me as being horrific. I would never have believed that a country which claims to offer an equal chance for everybody (i.e. the American Dream) could accept such a travesty as part of life.