The market created for Higher Education makes students the newest targets for NINJA loans (No Income, No Job, No Assets). Most students depend on credit to access higher education, also there are a host of other credit products – from overdrafts and credit cards to payday loans – specifically marketed to students because of their limited income. Looking to the US we know this is a ‘ticking time bomb’ as the young are shackled with mountains of high-cost credit that will take decades – during their prime earning years – to pay off. The UK is now seeing the emergence of its own Generation Debt – where the young must mortgage their future to gain access to today’s economy. Current political rhetoric normalises these levels of debt as an ‘investment’ in the future or as simply necessary to cover the growing costs of education and to ensure that higher education is still available to all.

The schedule for the afternoon is as follows:

2-3pm Teach-in The Economics of Generation Debt

Ben Tippet – Rethinking Economics

Johnna Montgomerie – PERC, Goldsmiths

3pm-4pm Roundtable on Resistance

Tim Hall – University of East London

Andrew McGettigan –Author the Great University Gamble

Calum Cant – National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts

This afternoon event seeks to educate students about the fee-loan regime in order to politicise debt and discuss of how we can resist indebtedness among students. Bringing in experts, we ask: what are income-contingent loans, who profits from your debt, how does the experience of having debt affect student wellbeing and life chances, and in what ways do fear of debt and the types of loans that are sold to students perpetuate inequalities? We also hear from activists on how debt can be resisted and how we can move from the idea of individual responsibility to collective action.