College No Longer A Free Ride In Britain

The British government announced Wednesday that it plans to impose tuition fees on college students for the first time, effectively abandoning the country’s long-held commitment to free higher education for everyone.

For Americans used to tuitions approaching $30,000 a year at Ivy League and other top schools, the British proposal - to charge about $1,600 per student per year - seems almost laughably modest. But because the plan also means that students would no longer be eligible for government grants covering room and board, student groups say, many will be faced with debts of more than $16,000 at the end of their three years in college.

In a nation where free education is considered as much a basic right as free health care and readily available social security benefits, the announcement is a further sign that Prime Minister Tony Blair’s new Labor government is intent on dismantling many of the most sacred vestiges of Britain’s old-style welfare state.