London Calling

It's difficult to say how I feel about the student protests rippling through England right now.  Smaller, more peaceful demonstrations dot the main street of Oxford every day, but thank goodness no violence has been reported in these parts.  In London, on the other hand, the spectre of raised tuition fees has gotten the young'uns up in arms.

It's a foreign concept to me, really, because the numbers being thrown around by doomsday activists - sixteen thousand pounds for an education! - are actually standard American rates.  I almost blush to think how much a Notre Dame education cost my family. (Here's a hint: we're still paying.)  In contrast, English children have been going to university for only a few thousand pounds per year, usually softened with student loans and bursaries for the neediest candidates.

There's a difference, of course.  American parents start saving before their children are even born to afford those college tuitions.  If you're an English parent, and you haven't made such preparations, because there was no need to make such preparations, this is a huge blow.  If your savings are already stretched tight, that could rule out college entirely.  What will your children do now?

It's a difficult problem, and I don't envy the decisionmakers on this one.  As someone who knows what it's like to pay the full fee for an education -- like the full fee I pay for my MA course, the English subsidized rates not being available to me -- I know these choices are hard.  Just consider this: a big motivator for my decision to move abroad for continuing education was the fact that this same program in the US would cost twice as much and take twice as long.  You'd hope that there is a lesson in this for the powers that be.