A burden for youth

It seems important to remind Andrew Oswald ("Face fees or failure", Soapbox, THES, May 26) that most Americans do not attend private universities, such as Dartmouth or Harvard, but large state-run, state-funded universities.

With little exception they are underfunded, their resources are stretched and their employees are overworked with little time for research.

Admittedly, the faculty, at least, are paid for their troubles. The very few exceptions, the "public ivys", such as the University of California or University of Massachussets, were built up when what little social democratic sentiment could be found in the country collided with the American ideal that education provided people with the ability to move up the income ladder.

Fees were $600 a year in 1989 when I studied at San Francisco State University. Maintenance grants were reserved for very poor students and were few and far between. In four years fees rose to $2,400. Numbers dropped from more than 31,000 to about 25,000. Our historically working-class, multi-cultural university had suddenly become very middle class and very white. Most of us were taking out loans and working 20-30 hours a week on top of a full-time course load.

I worked all the way through my degree, had my rent paid by my parents and still walked out $10,000 in debt to the same government that "subsidised" my university. Most of my friends' middle-class parents were not able to pay their children's rent, let alone their "non-dependants" medical insurance. My housemates were terrified of illness and had to wait for emergency room status to get care.

The only thing that should be admired about the American system is the fact that it shows a certain monetary respect for its academic professionals that this government cannot seem to muster. A relatively small victory when you consider the losses.

David Hansen-Miller

University of North London