BY ending the notion of free education for post 18-year-olds, the Blair Government is doing what Mrs Thatcher would not have dared.
Many of the arguments in favour of their policy are specious to say the least. The assertion that graduates will earn £400,000 more than non-graduates during a working life is probably based on data collected when only a small percentage of young people went to university.
Does this apply now? I doubt it.
York MP Hugh Bayley can, of course, obtain information from York University about what the average earnings of their graduates are.
The latest figures on yearly average earnings of industrial workers is put at £25,000, so our future graduates would have to be earning £35,000-plus to gain any advantage from continuing education. This would preclude teachers, social workers, local authority employees and many others.
Access to a university education was once considered as a means of ultimately providing a more interesting and worthwhile job and permitting our young people to make a valuable contribution to society.
Their talents and skills should not be penalised .
Trudie Elliott,
Hopgrove Lane North, York.
Updated: 11:39 Friday, December 12, 2003
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