Parents are planners – and we need certainty

I DISTINCTLY remember the worry on my parents’ faces when the subject of paying for university came up when I was a teenager.

There was no way they were not going to pay for me to go; the question was how they would achieve this.

And for years before I actually went in 2004, it was something that was discussed, budgeted, saved for and, sadly, stressed about.

On one occasion I recall a spreadsheet, and a warning from my mother that it was going to be tough, not only for them to cover the cost, but for me to be able to live on what spending money they would be able to provide me.

She wasn’t trying to impart her worry on to me, but was rather being realistic about what I could expect.

And I can’t imagine what would have happened had I had a brother or sister who was due to be studying at the same time.

As it turned out, my experience of the university grant system was very different, my mother having died just a few weeks before I was due to leave for Nottingham.

I was given a full grant, meaning that my tuition fees were covered and I received a payment every term to help with living expenses.

I remain, however, very aware of just what a difference Treasury Minister Alan Maclean’s announcement last week that the States is to pay some or all of the tuition fees for students from September will make.

Under the proposals outlined during Tuesday’s Budget debate, all families who have a household income under £150,000 would have access to a full grant, while any households earning above that would have 50 per cent of their tuition fees covered.

Senator Maclean also said that he would be extending the grants awarded to cover living costs while studying to capture more higher-education students.

Such a system would, he said, be a much better option than a student loan system, which burdens young people with debt.

The proposals are now being consulted on, and the minister has said that all sorts of details still need to be worked out.

For example, students could be asked to return to Jersey to work for a minimum period after finishing university, or face paying back the money, and what will the qualifying rules be around residence and how long students have been in the Island before they head off with their fees paid?

There is still an awful lot to work out, and no one knows quite yet what the final system will look like.

However, it will mean that people like my mum and dad will not have to stress – quite so much – about how they are going to pay the bills and send a child to university.

It may mean that more young people who otherwise would not have been able to afford to go will attend university, and it may encourage more graduates to come back to the Island once they finish their studies.

And, the announcement will of course be helpful for ministers come the election in May…

But as well as working out the finer details of the scheme, there’s also a small question of where an extra few million pounds a year is to come from to fund it.

The Higher Rate (Child) Allowance currently provided to parents of students in higher education is to be scrapped from 2019 to provide around £3.5 million for the pot.

However, on top of that another £4m still needs to be found annually to pay for the expected costs of the scheme. And that is just an estimate.

I have no doubt that it can be found, and reasonably easily. After all this is an Island which, despite seemingly constant government cost cutting, is affluent with lots of assets and options at its disposal.

But today I am a mother, and it’s my turn to do the stressing.

And while 2033 – the year my son would go to university if he is able, wants to and the school system remains the same – is a long way off and it’s a bit too far off to get really worked up about it. But if we have to find a spare, say, £100,000 to send him to university, then those 16 years don’t seem quite such a long way away.

After all, it would equate to us having to save £520 a month from now until then.

I have friends and acquaintances who have already started to do the maths, and who have been saving since day one for exactly that reason.

There is now a risk, however, that we, as parents, take our eye off the ball on this one. A risk that we sit back and relax – as much as we can, that is – and say ‘don’t worry, the States are paying now’.

But a lot can happen in 16 years and, as we saw with the proposals to mess around with the Nursery Education Fund (and the 20 free hours of nursery in the year before a child starts school), even relatively new arrangements can be targeted when the pressure is on.

Thankfully these proposals have now been scrapped, for the time being at least, but not before a lot of stress and worry among parents.

There is a lesson in that experience, therefore, as this university funding consultation period progresses – parents need stability and to be able to look to the future with surety.

After all, from the moment a child is born we are planning, hoping and dreaming for their future, and we need to save for it too.