Sir Peter Lampl: High fees and deep cuts are a toxic mixture

Sir Peter Lampl wrote for the Times on the dangers of excessive student debt.

Education is one generation’s gift to the next. And that is why many of us whose lives have been transformed by a free but priceless university education will feel some pangs of sympathy for the peaceful student protesters as they take to the streets again in opposition to the proposed rise in tuition fees by the Government.

Like most people, I believe that the costs of university education must now be shared between the individual graduate who benefits from the degree and the State. Is the balance right? That is the central question that MPs need to ask themselves in the forthcoming parliamentary debate over fees. For my part, my views have shifted: I am afraid to say that now I believe that we have got it wrong.

One reason for my change of heart is the experience I have had living part-time in America. University fees have been part of life in the US for generations now. And indeed the high fees charged by the prestigious Ivy League colleges have been held up by some as the model for UK universities to allow them to compete on the higher education world stage.

However, the elites at Harvard, Princeton and the rest have very little in common with the reality of the vast majority of graduates in the US. Rising levels of debts among graduates are becoming an increasing concern for all but the richest American families as former students struggle to find jobs after graduating.

But the actual scale of US student debt may come as a surprise to many on this side of the Atlantic. According to a national survey by the Project on Student Debt charity, US students graduating in 2009 from four-year bachelor programmes in public and private colleges left with an average of $24,000 (£15,000) in student loan debt. The College Board, meanwhile, has estimated similar levels of debt: in 2007-08 for graduates at state colleges it was $17,700 (£11,000); while at private institutions it was $22,400 (£14,000).

What shocked me reading these reports was how the figures pale in comparison with the widely predicted graduate debts for English students if fees, or graduate contributions, are allowed to rise to as much as £9,000 a year. Depending on the assumptions made, taking into account, for example, maintenance grants to the poorest students, graduate debts are likely to range between £30,000 and £50,000 for a three-year programme. In other words, English graduates will face two to three times the debt of graduates in the US.

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