STUDENT GRANT IN THE RED

Did you catch this interview on Today which debates the claim that the average student leaves University with £23,000 debt. The discussion was between one of the architects of the student loan system Nicholas Barr from the LSE and NUS President Wes Streeting.

The interview manages to entirely miss the essential fact that a Labour government, ideologically driven by radical egalitarianism, is pushing far too many young people into debt in the first place by encouraging them to go to University when other avenues may be more appropriate for them. Streeting managed a get a sly dig in at the Conservatives and of course there was the usual class warfare angle from Student Grant. It’s sad to see the important area of university education used as just one more battle-field by the radical left since this now means that a degree is increasingly worthless, that the chance of an academically bright kid from a working class background getting into a University is reduced, and that Universities themselves have become bastions of left wing orthodoxy. Labour must be pleased that they have gotten away with this and all the BBC wants to talk about is the level of debt and terms of repayment. Based on this interview, so long as a graduate avoids work for 25 years, all will be well!