The Great Student Funding Debate

My comments - somewhat tongue in cheek - about the great student funding furore has spawned a sub debate of its own. We should invest in young graduates to work here say some others say quite accurately that many will not come back to work here. After all a good degree and even better academic follow up qualifications these days make the world your oyster.

So why should we - the great unwashed - fund students education for folk who may not grace our shores for many a year after throwing their academic caps in the air?

Well the short answer is because we are a ‘community’ and everything is predicated on that fact. I may think its jolly unfair that I pay more tax than a lot of other people but the taxation system is for the common good I just wish Alf Cannan would convey that message to his tax dodging mates in the business community (there’s that word again community).

I really don’t support investment in education and in particular higher education on the basis that all graduates should then return to the Island queue up outside the ‘Chamber of Chancers’ and ‘give something back to the Island’. I support investment in young people's education at University because it gives them the opportunity if they are bright enough to get that lift in life so many others were denied.

I think there needs to be a universal approach to student funding so that no doubts over cost can blight any child future success and that should not be predicated on them having to come back here - they can go to Papua New Guinea if thats where their future takes them and thats where their career success lies.

The Isle of Man constantly holds up as examples those people who have been successful in Business, Education and the Arts off Island. Manx people or the children of Manx residents are successful globally leaders in their field and that is something we should be proud of. Someday they may come back to the old country but their initial access to higher education should not be based on some ‘indenture’ that they have to serve ‘6 years in the salt mines of Mann’ after graduation.

God this place is so introverted sometimes it makes me angry - nothing for it a pint!

Bernard Moffatt