The case for fees is not regressive.Critics claim falsely that graduates will be crippled by debt in the new fees regime. But there is no real rate of interest; you only pay back when you’re earning more than £15,000 If you’re not earning that much, your repayments are frozen. And if there’s still money to pay after 25 years, the amount will be written off. If this offer were available to anyone, there’d be queues along high streets to the bank.What of Labour’s political opponents? The Tories opportunistically opposed the change when the legislation was going through parliament They now quietly support it. The Liberals still tell students they oppose the new system, yet the Government in Scotland supports a graduate repayment system no different in principle to the new English system. In the real world, their stance is called hypocrisy.Some opponents argue that we don’t need more graduates, that we should keep an elite system where the privileged few don’t have to repay their fees I wholly reject this view. A degree is still the best passport to a secure working life.

We should spread this advantage as widely as possible.And there’s a real economic imperative for Britain to have more graduates. Recent research suggests that 18 million jobs will become vacant between 2004 and 2020, half of which will be in occupations likely to employ graduates. Our competitors have higher university participation rates; China and India turn out millions of graduates a year.We need more graduates The new funding system is the fairest way to deliver them. Access to university has never been fairer and it’s the best investment a student will make.The writer is the Minister for Higher Educationeducation independent.co.uk. When Rebecca Clay, now 23, signed up for a BA in animation at the University of Lincoln, she was hopeful about the future.

Lincoln was one of the best places for the subject, she was told, so she imagined leaving with a degree that would get her a job in a television, advertising or film studio

“I was hoping to get a good job in animation,” she says “I am not stupid I realise that you have to work your way up. The university promised that they would make us ‘industry-ready’. We were shown this amazing, fantastic equipment, including a motion-rig camera, and they said we would have a lot of guest speakers from industry to talk about topics relevant to our course and future careers.”
The reality was very different, according to Ms Clay and many other students in her class. Some of the equipment didn’t work, there were no industry speakers, the lecturers were nearly impossible to find, and there was no fixed timetable. “We are given a timetable, but then the lectures are cancelled, often on the day, without notice or adequate explanation,” according to the complaint that the students filed with the university. “Our total lecture hours regularly fell below an average of half-an-hour a week, if we could find out when they were.”The seminars were little better, the students said, and the equipment was “appalling”.

Either there wasn’t enough of it, or it was in very poor repair. “We were told to just buy the Animator Survival Kit and teach ourselves,” their complaint stated.Moreover, the marking was inconsistent and the lecturers negative. Staff told students that their Student Handbook was “bollocks”, yet when they asked questions about grading, and so on, they were told to refer to the handbook, according to the complaint.”Overall we have not received even a shadow of the service we were sold or that we paid for. We only expected to be given, and to need, a single ’shot’ at university to progress with our lives in our chosen field.

The University of Lincoln has ruined this single shot and we can think of no way that this can be retrieved.”The students, who have now graduated, became so concerned that they drew up a list of 14 complaints towards the end of their second year, which they submitted formally to the university. “Basically, we weren’t taught very much, so the course was a waste of time,” says Nicholas Thompson, 22, one of Ms Clay’s classmates, who has found it impossible to find a job. “I am considering doing another degree now because I am not confident I will find a job in animation.”However, one student, Suzanne Askham, 22, is still trying to get a job in animation “I have wanted to be an animator since I was six,” she said. “This was my ultimate ambition.”After graduating last year with a 2:1 in the subject, she took unpaid work in London where, she said, she learnt more in six months that in her time at Lincoln.Rebecca Clay has also failed to find a job in animation. She is now working in a shop and is hoping to set up her own business in fine art.