Do Labour not get supply and demand?
Posted on 08. Feb, 2010 by OHC in United Kingdom
A 23% surge in university applications has been announced by UCAS at a time when places are being scythed to make up for Labour’s record budget deficit.
This has mostly been attributed to work-shy school-leavers having applied to stay in education for no better reason than to avoid having to get a job at this difficult time. My, what an intransigent problem.
Resident Labour hack Wes Streeting has bleated (but not yet tweeted) that the solution is government subsidising university places even more. Huh? How is that consistent with halving the budget deficit, Wesley?
Universities want more money. The government can’t afford to borrow more and the taxpayer can’t afford to spend more. Too many students see university as a free ride to see out the recession. The solution really is obvious.
Let universities increase tuition fees, as they’ve been demanding for ages. This will let them protect places, and deter the free-loaders that are just applying to avoid getting a low-paying job.
Introducing top-up fees facilitated UCL and Imperial moving into the top five universities in the world. Letting universities set their own fees to match demand would let others match their meteoric rise.
Supply and demand.