UK’s hiking of visa and healthcare fees ‘indefensible’

This is not a balanced article at all. Getting Professor Gopal to comment on almost any issue in HE is likely to get answer framed around racist intent.

This is not a balanced article at all. Getting Professor Gopal to comment on almost any issue in HE is likely to get answer framed around racist intent.

Strange to frame the issue as "stealing from the 'Global South'" [para 5] when the countries providing the largest numbers of international students [China, India] and others are north of the equator. Net time perhaps present data showing distribution of students geographically, though its not clear what the point. What difference does it make what hemisphere a student comes from, the same fee issues will apply.

Indeed - would be progress if the THE sourced at least some of its quotes & sound-bites from academics capable of expert rational analysis rather than ones who can be guaranteed at every opportunity to mount a soap-box and rant. But I suppose grounded and balanced assessments are not newsworthy? - and might not chime with the stultifying groupthink within a tweet-addicted academe that is the THE subscriber base?

Let's address the real issue: the abuse of the system by the government to fund things like decent play for public employees that they ought to be providing out of the public purse - we put enough in to it, for pete's sake! Any charge the government makes for a service should at most be how much it costs to provide that service. Any more than that and the agreement whereby we permit them to levy taxes is threatened. We let them tax because otherwise they have nothing with which to provide services to meet their duty of care and obligations to citizens. If they start charging in excess of the cost of a service for providing that service, they then have an alternative way of making money so forfet any right to tax people.