The ruling Labour Party is planning to change the way that U.K. students pay for a university education. In 1997, it had introduced tuition fees and eliminated maintenance grants for living expenses. Politicians were deeply affected by the anger of parents of students during the recent election campaign. Although education is cheaper than in the U.S., students are balking at paying up to $1500 a year for tuition and $5,000 for living expenses, because they graduate with debts averaging $17,000.

The Government is aware that graduates earn on average $460,000 more than non-graduates over their lifetimes, so a free education is not in the cards. One idea is that graduates should pay a small proportion of their income back to the government once their income rises above a certain level. Another idea is to charge higher interest rates to richer students to help the poorer students.

(Updated November 1, 2001)