First Week of Second Year: The Government Is Still Incompetent And I Learnt About Nationalism. 01/10/20

In the way that I’ve been raised, I’ve kind of grown up with the awareness that politicians are liars and that our government, particularly the tory one under which we’ve been consistently suffering for the last few years, are self-entitled, privileged and largely, absolutely useless. I mean Brexit was one thing and call it conspiracy theory if you like, but its almost as if the government have purposefully been so useless in their dealings with Corona Virus in order to distract us from the shambles of the recent ‘hung parliament’ and abysmal election results last December, which no one seemed to handle very well to be honest. However, I don’t think it was really until maybe the last few years, and especially this year under the Covid-19 pandemic, which must seemingly be referred to in every written piece of the foreseeable future, that the government’s incompetence has actually enraged me. 

In this particular rant essentially about how shit the UK is towards pretty much everyone, let’s start with something close to my heart, the students. Personally, my entrance into the higher education system for which I’m being charged £9250 a year, plus rent, I consider to be an absolute rip-off anyway - thanks for that Osborne. That’s without the reminder that last year, due to strikes and the global pandemic, I actually only received on average about four months of teaching. Even under normal circumstances, that almost 10 grand would pay for about 9 hours a week of tuition for 22 weeks which, if you care to do the maths, is definitely not economically viable in any way, shape or form. The fact of the matter is, that that price tag alone immediately isolates members of the population who simply cannot afford those fees. The fact that I am in a position privileged enough to be able to continue my education in this way is something for which I’m very grateful, although it is a privilege (not a right) which I embrace with a degree of self repulsion. How dare our government transform the right to self-advancement in an area in which people are passionate, into a bourgeoise commodity in which even the idea of a ‘poor student lifestyle’ is mocked by a large number of university attendees because we know that we must have some level of financial security and support to even be here. 

It is a system in which I know many people feel trapped and which keeps changing it’s rules so that we have to constantly paddle ferociously just to keep our heads above water. Now for example, it is not enough to just have A-Levels, you have to have the degree. But everyone has a degree these days, so don’t think you’re finished, you’re going to need a Masters for that job you so desperately aspire to. Undoubtedly, eventually as a society we will reach the point where everyone must have a doctorate, or their qualifications won’t even be given a second glance. 

The fact that there are people, and people I know closely, that have had to work or do an apprenticeship instead because they simply could not afford the cost of AN EDUCATION at the same time that I’m sat here, in my university’s library,  making use of it’s resources, is frankly disgusting. We’re sold this idea that the money is less of an issue because we can apply for student loans: 

“Don’t worry, student loan will pay for it”. 

“Thats what student loan is for”

. And yet, I don’t think there is a single adult I know who, since graduating from university, has not been stressed about paying back the money they owe for the education that everyone ought to be entitled to. 

And thats just the students who qualify for UK resident tuition fees. If we look at international fees for university education, the costs are essentially tripled. Of course for a lot of international students, they are subsidised so much that these extortionate tuition fees become less of an issue, but it still makes my mind reel that institutions are guiltlessly collecting this amount of money each year from teenagers. Where is it even going? Because I’m sorry but a few books and a zoom subscription just doesn’t cut it. However, something that has been brought to my attention more recently due to a project I’ve been working on with some migrant students, is that people who have occupied the UK for almost all of their lives, contributing to the community, paying taxes, and paying even more on top of that for the NHS, are very often still not entitled to UK residence fees due to their immigration status. This would be I guess maybe more understandable if the complications with visas and applications etc was down to this migrant population. However, what I’ve come to realise, and honestly I’m embarrassed that I wasn’t more aware of before the beginning of this year, is the utter incompetence of the Home Office and the UK immigration system in dealing with people in situations like this.

There is a whole community of migrants here in the UK who have been mistreated, threatened with deportation to a country they don’t even recognise as ‘home’, forced to wait in a sort of limbo, without the ability to legally work or study or receive necessary medical treatment, through no fault of their own. The fact that the immigration system itself operates on an impersonal basis is so obviously a tactic so that the people who work there don’t, god forbid, employ their humanity in making decisions about people’s lives. On top of all of this, so many of these people aren’t entitled to student finance, and don’t find out anything about this until the last year of sixth form or college, because it’s not talked about enough and there is so little information publicised about this. Even my flatmate in student halls this this year, who is Polish but has lived in the UK since he was 12, has been telling me the troubles he’s had with student finance. The fact that the date of approbation for his money for maintenance and tuition is being repeatedly delayed because the evidence of his UK residence that he’s already provided is disgusting. 

It is unjust and inhumane to operate a system that takes away years of people’s lives whilst they’re waiting for their applications to be approved, and then still to deny these people the right to work, the right to education and the right to a ‘normal’ life within the UK. I can rant all day long about how much I’m paying for university and how utterly shit the level of tuition and support we’ve received thus far has been, but I will always be in a more advantageous position than residents of the UK who were not born in this country. I understand of course the need for an ordered system and immigration controls and borders etc etc but what I don’t understand, is how some people think they somehow have superiority over others because of where they were born. We, as a nation born largely out of violent colonisation, do not have the right to turn around and deny people access to what we’ve built on the backs of their cultures.