This week MP Bill Rammell Education Secretary visited Leeds University to hold a question and answer session regarding the ever increasing tuition fees students are expected to pay. Next year, fees are rising from the current £3,070 to £3,145 and students are not happy about it. To highlight the issues surrounding top up fees, myself and Virginia have written arguments for the big debate section of our Leeds Student newspaper. My argument (against the increase) is below.

Another academic year is drawing to a close and most students should be thinking about applying or re-applying for their student loans. The loans are not repayable until earning over £15K and do not feel like a reality for most because the money is paid directly from the government to the University.

All students have to do is sign a form. The sad truth is that over three years at University students can rack up close to £20K of debt; a drastically earth-grounding figure. To make matters worse, fees are on the up and show no signs of stopping, despite many student protests.       

But why do fees keep increasing? The increase won't make that much of a difference to the income of England's Universities, especially because of the extra grants and bursaries that will have to be handed out. This just leaves more scope for the figure to keep going up.        

I don't see how the government are encouraging young people to enter into higher education by placing such large fees on the cost of university. Understandably, these institutions need resources, buildings, staff, lecturers etc and these things are not going to pay for themselves. However, I think that there must be a line drawn on how far the government expects students to pay for this education.        

It seems as though the priorities of the government are not with the improvements of its own country. Although they do seem to be able to spare the cash to fund, in my opinion, an un-just war in which they are helping to destroy another.

It's unlikely that there are many students out there who welcome top-up fees and as we've seen through campus protests there are certainly enough who are strongly against it. But why does the government keep ignoring us?

It's just ridiculous to expect a £20K figure of debt not to be off-putting to potential students and for those already paying, it's a constant worry. Charging students almost three times the amount for tuition than expected two years ago is not a reasonable solution to the problem that faces our Universities. Something needs to be done soon to prevent further increases.

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Or as it's being called by my house mates - 'the dud room' which I was just lucky enough to pick out of a hat!

Our land lady came round today to remind us that we have to be moved out of this house by the 30th June which is all fine and dandy apart from the fact that we can't move into our new house until the 1st of July. This is a bit of a problem for me as it's not really logical to move all of my possessions down to London for all of one night just to move them all back up again. I think I'm going to have to look into some kind of storage system or something instead. The discussion of moving prompted a spontaneous decision to decide rooms by picking them out of a hat. Unfortunately for me I got the smallest room. I'm not really that bothered but do think that I'll have to cut down on a lot of my things as this year I had the biggest room so acquired quite a few possessions.

The first week back at Uni has been pretty painless money-wise as I've been completely swamped under by revision and essay-writing so haven't had the chance to do much. I'm sure that will all be about to change as this weekend it's my birthday and I have quite a few things planned. Tomorrow night we're making a group trip down to a casino in town (possibility to spend/lose a lot of money) and Saturday night we have a big night out organized. After a short break it will be straight back to the library to continue the uphill struggle to exams in May so I think it will be a good term to save some cash.

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Saturday 30th March - £15 on meal with friends + ?? on a night out (I honestly can't remember what I spent but that's because I was not only buying my drinks but those of friends who I owed money).
Tuesday 1st April - £33.80 spent on weekly return to London stations + £12 for the week spent on lunch.

Apart from my big spend on Saturday I haven't been too bad with my money this week although I realise I could have saved some money by taking my own lunches to work. My plan is to win big on the Grand National this Saturday and then my debts will no longer be a problem... stupid I know.

Those were the horror stories I was used to hearing in first year about those students who had taken their whole loan and placed it on a horse. I'm not going to be so extravagant (I think my mother would skin me alive if I lost) but I will place a small bet just for fun. I still remember when my Dad used to let me put a pound on any horse I wanted - I used to think if I won I would be raking it in!

Some of my friends from Leeds are coming down to visit me this weekend so hopefully it won't be an expensive one as we'll just stay in, have a bbq and watch the race.

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