The Education axe is swung

Today, universities were given the go-ahead to hike tuition fees up to £6,000 a year, with a possible maximum of an eye-popping £9,000 a year. These measures could be brought in from 2012, plunging many students across the UK that are currently in year 11 and college into university oblivion.

When I first heard that the changes are due to take effect from 2012, my first thought, as I'm due to graduate in 2012, was "thank God I'll be spared!"

Slowly but surely though, I began to realise the potentially detrimental effects the 40% cut to the university teaching budget and the increase in tuition fees will have on our field of pharmacy, science and beyond.

With tuition fees higher, students are more likely to live at home for their university years or worse, be put off higher education altogether; I believe that the latter would be particularly damaging to vocational courses such as medicine, pharmacy and dentistry because of the course durations. Should universities start charging £9,000 a year and assuming students resort to student loans to pay for the extortionate fees, a medical student would incur a debt of £45,000 on his or her education alone, never mind accommodation fees, course equipment and maintenance costs. In ten years time, could we be looking at a lack of doctors, dentists and other healthcare and science professionals as a consequence of today's events? And how would this impact the NHS and the welfare of the general public?

I can see that these cuts are perhaps necessary but I fail to see how this new system can be constantly branded by George Osborne as "fair", arguably his favourite word at present, when it is clear that the graduates who earn less will pay back more by way of increased interest on student loans as it will take them longer to clear the debt than the more affluent graduates.

A vote on tuition fees is set to happen before Christmas and, with many disgruntled Liberal Democrat MPs threatening a rebellion, the Prime Minister and his cabinet are in for a very rough ride in the Commons.