The government’s higher education policies have led the Open University to announce a significant fees increase for next year. We in the Open University Student Association strenuously (强烈地) resist this move and an e-petition (网络签名请原) has been started to ask the government to rethink its proposals. Thousands of students who’ve been failed by their previous educational experiences graduate with the OU every year. Even though student loans have been opened up to part-time students for the first time as part of the government’s changes to university funding, we know many of these people are debt-averse and will see a student loan as a lifelong debt. How are these people going to be encouraged to take the risk to discover their talent and improve their lives It is also true that many will not be able to get one of the government’s loans. These are people that want to study standalone modules,or have already studied at university level. They could be doing this to re-skill to get back into the workplace after redundancy, or to up-skill to further their careers. These are good reasons for wanting to update old qualifications,or qualifications that no longer serve their needs, but they will not be able to get a student loan to help them. The Open University is something the UK can take pride in. its ideas and methods are followed by educators in other countries. We believe that our university will survive, whatever governments throw at it, but we see the forced increase in the OU’s fees as a real threat to the university’s openness. We want the government to consider the impact its changes to higher education funding will have on the very people the UK government set out to support over 40 years ago when it created the OU. I’m asking them--and others who believe in the OU’s ethos and mission to make education open to all to please sign the e-petition,so that we can have enough signatures to get our debate in parliament and make sure that the OU can continue to open the doors of education that have been so firmly closed for many. What do people in the Open University Student Association strongly protest
A. Cutting student loans to part-time students in the Open University. B. A substantial fees increase due to the new higher education policies. C. The unfair distribution of government’s loans among students. D. Stopping funding higher education by the UK government.