I am currently half way through a social work degree(hopefully going to be one of the good ones!) Whilst i agree it is up to me to pay my fees as its my choice to further my education, i did work for 10 years before i started so i put money away to help me get through. I think the ammount they are proposing is a bit steep as it seems in my experience to takes a tutor 3 weeks to reply to an email and results are always late because tutors get behind on their marking. Are the higher fees going to reflect better support from teachers?
However I have two children of my own and am not looking forward to helping them through uni should they wish to go when its time!

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

I'm currently studying a practical course, my fees are £1000 a year for the first two years, third year £2000, fourth year and fifth year £4000 a year.
£12,000 in all

I'm 31, I'm paying for this myself, it will better me and I'm quite comfortable with this, i fully agree with the government on this. Regardless of cost if you think your subject is a worthy (to society) course and you feel you will pass and go on to have a happy and profitable future then no amount of fee will get in the way of your desire and ambition. I don't have too much disposable income at the moment and won't for a few years but i want this, i want this badly and I'm motivated.

My philosophy is the world helps those that are prepared to help themselves.
Students you want it, you pay for it.

In theory this neo-conservative approach should introduce more market forces into higher education. I.e you have to perform better to justify higher fees. Universities don't have to charge £9k per year, I understand that to be the max they can charge. Fairly sure Iv'e mentioned it somewhere on RL Fans before but I think a uni offering an intensive 2 year course rather than the prolonged three year course many subjects do could perform quite well. Think of the cost savings for the student for a two year course vs a three year one?

I kind of agree with some of the comments about students. I'm a final year languages student and will be doing my PGCE (teacher training) next year. I'm consistently told by other students "You're not a proper student". Apparently because I don't go out getting ed all the time, live at home and actually spend time in the library doing work. If that makes me "not a proper student" then fine.

What annoys me the most is that in Germany most Unis are free or cost about 1000 EUR a year max. That's with a travel pass for all state wide public transport. Big businesses dodging taxes, being made to pay their rightful share would mean none of these cuts would have to happen. I can tell you now, I would never be able to afford to pay off these new fees. Don't forget it's not just the tripling of the fees but the rise in interest.