University tuition fees - whether you pay them or not, whether you missed out on uni because of them or not - might form the crux of any iffiness about modern British politics. After all, Nick Clegg promised to abolish tuition fees. And what happened when he got into power as the Deputy Prime Minister to David Cameron's Prime Minister? He let them increase threefold from £3,000 to £9,000.
Considering the Lib Dems also promised to offer a solution to the two-party system, this move is one big factor in young people's mistrust of politicians. With all that said and done, promises might not matter to you. But if you're interested in what the parties have to say about tuition fees ahead of the election, this is what each of their manifestos say:
Labour
Labour promise to cut them from £9,000 to £6,000 a year ‘funded by restricting tax relief on pension contributions for the highest earners and clamping down on tax avoidance.’
Conservatives
The party sticks by the rise in tuition fees but also promises you won’t have to start paying back your loan until you’re earning £21,000 a year, and ‘We will also introduce a national postgraduate loan system for taught masters and PhD courses.’
Lib Dems
They say they’ll help people transfer from uni to uni to do their degree and get credits from different places more flexibly. They’ll also establish a review of higher education, especially looking at living costs. They also will ‘ensure the UK is an attractive destination for overseas students, not least those who wish to study STEM [Science Technology Engineering and Maths] subjects’
Green
Scrap them and cancel all the money anyone owes to the Student Loans Company
UKIP
They want to focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine courses, waiving tuition fees for any British student who studies and trains in the UK and then continues to work in the UK in a related field for at least five years after qualifying. Another way of making sure university pays? They will also discourage people from going, unless there are enough vacancies to give two thirds of graduates jobs after leaving uni.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.