This House Believes that Government Should Pay for University Fees

I believe that the government should NOT pay for university fees for students. Nothing is free. Everything must be paid for by someone. My belief is that it is inherently wrong to extort money from another person to support your cause, no matter how noble it is. I think that working to make university more affordable is a better strategy than simply handing out tuition. Eliminating general education, for example, would drastically cut costs for students who want to learn about engineering but can't afford an extra year. Also, Youtube, Wikipedia, and textbooks can provide as good an education to the persistent student as a university, the only difference is that you have no degree to show for it. Offering a way for these students to prove their competence in their subject, such as allowing them to pay for college examinations without paying for the lectures, would also provide a much more economical solution for determined students to acquire a degree. People who go to university should go because they want the specialization that university can and should provide. Not everyone should go to university. Now, I'm aware that not everyone can pay for university. That is why I support government aid to the poor. To refute a point, giving everyone a college education will not help the UK in the long run. Instead, we will have more lower level workers with college degrees. No matter what you do, we still will need cleaning staff, lollipop men, gardeners, and construction workers. Plus, there are only so many CEOs, Presidents, and other high paying jobs. Not everyone will get one. In recent decades there has been a rapid rise in the number of graduates. But, many graduates are leaving university to take jobs which don"t require a degree. A study by the ONS found that nearly 50% of workers who left university in the past five years are doing jobs which don"t require a degree. Therefore, it is a mistake to continue to fund the public expansion of university education because the economy doesn"t need more graduates as much as other skills. If we made education free I feel that the value for education would plummet in a downward spiral. The reason why we value our higher education so much is because we know we're putting a lot on the line for the education we seek. The loans we have taken out for this education is what reminds us why we're pursing out this dream. If it was free we wouldn't have as much drive and not to mention many would abuse this education policy. If we made education free how would the professors who teach us get paid? Or the faculty who serves the school? There are many issues with making education free. Also the rapid rise in university numbers means that greater pressure is being put on university resources. Since the government is struggling to maintain public spending, let alone increase spending, there is a danger that university education and research may suffer, causing UK education to lag behind other countries. If universities can charge students, it will help maintain standards, quality of teaching and the reputation of UK universities.. After all these points ladies and gentlemen I think you can begin to see why the government should not pay for university fees. I know you would all like to go to university for free but it is not feasible! It is totally impractical in today's society!