but don't forget your sister won't be paying huge amounts back, if, as you say the career she has chosen pays a lesser amount over £21K she will get an extra 10% tax from her paypacket
the graduate on 80K per year will be paying back significanlty more than her

if she is passionate about the job and getting her degree then the debt, albeit a nasty one and a huge burden over her for a good few years will be worth it in the end
if she isn't convinced by the degree and the subsequent job then maybe she should try something else

nottryingtosoundlikeafascisthere

i'll shut up now

It's not so much the rate of payments as the incredible length of time it will take to complete them. My debt is significant enough for me to have resigned to the fact that I will probably be paying it back for many many years to come. Under the new system, many years seem like they might be more like a lifetime.

The point I was trying to make though with my sister is actually some of the most important jobs (teaching, nursing etc) require a university level education but don't necessarily pay that well. It's a common misconception that all graduates earn more than non-graduates – statistically that margin is incredibly low when taken over a lifetime's earning. Most motivated people who leave school at 18 will be earning more by the time their peers graduate from university than they do in their first job, and in most cases the gap doesn't change significantly from that point.

The richest people, it seems to me, are those that either worked bloody hard (and probably trod on a few people) their whole lives – the Alan Sugars of this world – and those who were born rich. University education seems to have little to do with it to my eyes. I went to University because I was interested in my subject, it's a semi-vocational course and I enjoy studying. Money is for me, like many of my peers, not a central motivation in life – I would far rather be happy in my work earning relatively little than earning loads and doing something I hated. Unfortunately the rise in fees adds another layer of tension to that equation, and I suspect will greatly inform the vast majority's decision of whether or not they should continue their education beyond school.