| > here in the UK, the very same PM has trebled the costs of going to university for English and Welsh students, pricing many out As far as I was aware, under the new scheme, graduates only start paying back their student debt once (and only if) their income crosses a certain threshold. That seems like a fairly good deal to me--a crude approximation of saying 'you only pay for your degree if you get financial value from it'. > This whole thing is a bizarre contradiction to me. I agree that education is a special case within international trade. But I do think that it is a matter for India and not Britain to curtail the ability of Indians to study abroad, if India believes that is (a) fair, and (b) beneficial to their domestic education system. I don't find it at all bizarre or morally perverse that the PM should act as a cheerleader for influential domestic interests such as our higher education system, especially when full fee-paying international students effectively subsidise UK students. And I've never seen Cameron say he wishes to reduce the number of fee-paying foreign students attending accredited UK institutions. And a also disagree with the implication in your comment that the UK general taxpayer subsidies higher education too little. More higher education than a free market would provide is beneficial, but after a certain point the net benefit to society of the next marginal student buying subsided education would be less than the added public benefit. If you watch the front page of HN, there's occasionally an article or two about a higher education bubble; people are (probably) already buying more education (and certainly in some sectors if not others) than the job market can stand. I like the idea of free education as a 'right', naturally or socially constructed. But moving towards that reality in Britain has to come from innovation slashing the marginal cost of education, and in the short term, by increasing the number of full fee-paying foreign students. Allocating revenue or large tax rises to up the number of students in higher education are going to be politically infeasible for at least a generation. (Not forgetting the looming demographic crisis on top of the current downturn.) |
Interesting, I had missed this (but I'm not British, so haven't been following closely). It looks like the new scheme defers repayment if you earn less than £21,000 (US$32,500), and then it further caps annual payments to 9% of your income that exceeds that amount.