Michael Gove says that if people who get degrees go on to earn well, they should pay something back (Report, 3 July). My daughter is almost 30, in her first postdoctoral job, earning real money at last. When she went to university she took out loans for fees only – we paid her rent, and she worked evenings and weekends to live. She then was on a scholarship through her master’s and PhD. She had a year out through illness, when she could claim nothing and lived on her credit card and overdraft. Finally she is a woman in science doing research into Zika and other viruses. She is earning enough to start paying back her loan and is happy to do so. But her monthly repayment only scrapes the surface of the capital debt. It is mostly paying the interest accrued over all those years of intense study. And that is a disgrace.
Janet Moore
Harleston, Norfolk
• Graduates already do pay back. First, by paying back their loans with interest. Second, by paying taxes, at higher rates if they earn well. Third, and most importantly, by their enormous contributions to the wellbeing of all in this country through their cultural, intellectual, financial and scientific skills and by their outstanding achievements in such professions as law, teaching, healthcare etc. Educating our young people in HEIs is an investment that pays off more obviously and significantly than the machinations of our ruling political classes.
Bernard Moxham
Cardiff
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