For many students in the UK today, deciding whether or not to go to university can be as much about affordability as it is about ambition and aspiration.

In times gone by, students in the UK could apply to a university or college safe in the knowledge that, even if they came from a low income family, their tuition fees and some of their living(or maintenance) costs would be covered by a local authority grant. A university education was, in a financial sense, open to all and the number of students attending university grew year on year.

Sadly, it seems, those days are long gone. The turning point came in 1998, when the Labour Government introduced tuition fees of ￡1,000 a year and, instead of giving students a maintenance grant, asked them to cover their own living expenses with a repayable student loan. Only students on the lowest incomes were entitled to a grant.

The flood gates had been opened. As time passed, the ceiling on tuition fees rose, and although applicants from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales still qualified for varying levels of subsidy, by 2009/10 students in England often found themselves facing tuition fees in excess of ￡3,000 a year.

But the biggest change was still to come. In 2011 the Government announced that, from 2012, universities could charge fees of up to ￡9,000 a year. Although the Government sweetened the pill by stating that postgraduates did not have to begin repaying their student loans until they were earning more than ￡21,000 a year, the news created outrage. Many students argued that it was unfair that students should have to begin their work life saddled with huge debt, while others complained that the changes would bring back a class divide to university education. These views were reflected in the number of students applying for a university place, which by January 2012 fell by more than 22,000. The Universities Minister, David Willetts, stood by the decision to increase tuition fees, saying that they would not “put universities’ finance on a sustainable footing” and facilitate “a stronger focus on high quality teaching.”

對于今天英國的許多學生來說，決定是不是去上大學已經不僅僅關乎抱負與渴望，能不能上得起也是他們做出決定的重要因素。

過去，英國的學生可以申請大學，并且確信即使自己來自低收入家庭，學費和一部分生活費也可以由當地的政府部門撥款發放津貼解決。大學教育，從學費角度而言是對所有學生開放的，因此踏入大學校門的學生也逐年增多。

遺憾的是，那些日子一去不復返了。轉折點發生在1998年，工黨政府開始推行每年需繳1,000英鎊大學學費的政策，并且不再向學生發放生活津貼，而是讓他們通過需要償還的學生貸款來解決生活費問題。只有來自最低收入家庭的學生才有資格得到補助。

這類政策一旦推行就會愈演愈烈。隨著時間的推移，學費的上限也水漲船高，盡管來自蘇格蘭、北愛爾蘭和威爾士的一些學生仍然夠資格申請不同程度的補貼，但到了2009/10年度，英格蘭的學生通常都要面臨每年超過3,000英鎊的學費支出。

但是更大的巨變還沒有到來。到了2011年，政府宣布從2012年起，允許大學收取高至9,000英鎊/年的學費。盡管政府為這一做法找的說辭是研究生可以在每年收入21,000英鎊以前，不必償還學生貸款，但這個消息還是觸發了眾怒。一些學生認為這種政策很不公平，會令他們剛剛開始工作就背上沉重的債務負擔，還有學生認為這一政策會在加劇大學期間學生間的階級分化現象。這些觀點也在大學申請人數上反映了出來，到2012年1月，英國申請大學的人數下降了22,000人。英國高等教育大臣大衛?威列茨支持政府提高學費的決定，并稱他們不會“把大學財政建立在學生可以付得起的基礎上”，而是要全力促進大學“對于教學質量的關注”。