I see a problem here. On average, a UK graduate might expect to earn £100k more over a lifetime of work (a.k.a £2,272 p.a, less after tax) but they can also expect to pay back their loan (around £30k), and arts students have a lower graduate premium (some estimates as low as £30k over their working life…)

So arts students may already be at the point where they cannot expect to make a financial gain, even in the long term, from getting a degree. If top up fees increase, this will start to be the situation for other disciplines too. And what is *worse* is that this graduate premium is calculated as being against people with 2 or more A levels, so it isn’t even like for like (not many people get in to university with just 2 A levels, as far as I know). The more capable ones, with more A levels, will prove their worth in the market place, and earn more without a degree. I know that with a BSc (1st) and MSc (Distinction), although I am happy with my job (apart from the ridiculous levels of insecurity attached), I am only earning the same as I was in my last job before I came back to Uni to get a degree. And, guess what? I only had A levels before that.

Now, I did come back as a mature student, so the ‘graduate premium’ was never going to match the figures given by the Government, but as it stands, my premium is looking like it is going to be equal to my student debt. And I imagine the same is going to be true for other mature students, *particularly* as the job market is increasingly flooded with the high numbers of people the Government is getting in to Higher Education.

Essentially there isn’t enough money in the system (and never was, due to the way it is unduly distributed towards bankers, even before those same bankers destroyed the economy) for the increasing numbers to be rewarded with salaries that make the bottom line worthwhile.