Ms Crompton: The student debt crisis
Key arguments:
- Ms Crompton contends that full fee-paying courses will mean that students are paying too much for their education and will suffer a burden of debt;
- Ms Crompton opposes changes to the fee structure and believes that any changes will harm student’s well-being prospects
- She maintains that their stress will be exacerbated, (compounded/made worse) by other burdens that they will inevitably face such as home-ownership, parenthood and career upskilling needs.
Persuasive/reasoning strategies are embedded in main contention/reasons:
- reputable expert; statistics and comparisons to highlight/reinforce the rise in student debt.
- The author attacks a public/education policy that will increase the students’ stress
- The author appeals to students’ health and wellbeing and their quality of life.
Quotes/Word level: “burden of debt will hang like a millstone around their academic necks”; “imagine the stress put upon future working parents”
Purpose: to elicit sympathy for students who will suffer from greater stress and anxiety; to encourage us to oppose the measures and to stop the government from introducing changes to the fee-system.
Metalanguage: Ms Crompton condemns the proposed changes; reputable experts; comparative rise in debt; words to describe sympathy and consequences.
Adopting an alarmed tone, Ms Crompton decries any rise in HECs fees because she believes, it will contribute to unsustainable student debt levels. By appealing primarily to students’ future mental health issues (purpose), she focuses attention on the stress that students will accumulate if HECS fees rise by up to 20 per cent. Specifically, her figurative reference to the “millstone” of around $40,000 to $60,000, which will “hang around their academic necks” highlights the magnitude of the debt. Furthermore, she also encourages her audience, especially policy makers to identify with the anxieties that students will feel as they may be paying off a debt into their “50s”. Accordingly, Ms Crompton hopes that readers can “imagine the stress put upon future working parents”. Such references elicit sympathy for students and directs our anger towards governments who are planning intolerable and stressful solutions for students.
- Return to Exercise 15: Overview
- See Exercise 15, Trigger Alerts, by Tina Hagen
- Return to Orange Workbook Exercise Task