Every so often, I have a dream in which it's about one week to go to Finals and I have done no work at all for my Eng Lit degree. God knows why I am still getting this dream almost 30 years after I graduated but it's probably a sign of anxiety. Probably also an expression of subconscious incredulity, with the hindsight of a 40-something adult, that I ever got to Cambridge University.
The odds weren't exactly in my favour as none of my family had gone to university ( that vile word "uni" had not been invented then) but self-belief is a marvellous thing and it simply never occurred to me that it was, to say the least of it, pretty unlikely. I was also helped by the fact my A Level grades and entrance exam were good enough to get me a a place without an interview - in which I'm sure I would have bombed out utterly.
Anyway, by way of contrast, 30 years on, my 18-year-old nephew, a bright sparky kind of lad, decided 12 months ago he would NOT be going to university.And his mind has not been changed at all by last week's confirmation that he had four A levels, with reasonable grades which were better than he expected. Why? The spectre of a student loan, spiralling debt and , above all, the fact he knows his parents are already cash-strapped supporting his sister at University.
Now I've heard all the arguments from New Labour drones who supported tuition fees and top-up fees in the first place. I accept modifications have been made to make things easier for those on low incomes. The harsh fact is, as yesterday's Indy revealed, it's simply not enough. And that decreasing numbers of state school kids are seeing university as an option. Particularly if they are from a working-class background. Hardly rocket science, is it?
Yes, middle-class parents will probably scrimp, save and do their damndest to ensure their kids make it to higher education. How exactly can families with no money, no history of university backgrounds, and fear of debts and overdrafts , feel the same motivation or enthusiasm at the prospect of financial penury.
Let me put it this way. If my parents had had to fork out and subsidise my three years at college - and I had had to take out a student loan - well it just wouldn't have happened.
We need to start campaigning again for a return to a universal grant system based on progressive taxation. An ideawhich seems to have completely slipped off the left's radar.
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