Debt Burden From Higher Education

EDM number 434 in 2003-04, proposed by Austin Mitchell on 15/01/2004.

That this House expresses concern that the Government's higher education funding proposals will result in burgeoning levels of personal debt, pressing particularly heavily on those less well-off university graduates whose parents cannot contribute to the costs of their education; observes that recent research from the Citizens Advice Bureau shows that the effects of debt include stress, depression and anxiety; notes that the Prime Minister declared in 2002 that one of his objectives was 'tackling the problems of debt and the perception of debt'; and therefore calls upon the Government to take seriously its own expressed concerns about the increase in average personal debt by acknowledging that its proposals on university fees and living costs will contribute substantially to the burdens of debt and borrowing pressing on young people, which will have the effect of normalising debt, making it more difficult for young people to borrow commercially for other expenditures, and will start them out in life dragging a ball and chain of high debt levels and shouldering burdens which must shackle their mobility and prospects, inhibit their ability to take on the normal burdens of borrowing for mortgages, hire-purchase, career development and all the other things their parents took for granted thus handicapping their entrance into adult life in a fashion which will be socially discriminatory and could turn youthful enthusiasm into a debt-ridden trudge.

This motion has been signed by a total of 29 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.