Critics of the rail line call it expensive at a time when the government is effectively raising university tuition, looking for ways to limit assistance to all but the poorest senior citizens and still mulling how to introduce a minimum wage.
So, although the recent changes to tuition fees look socially sustainable, they are in fact not.
Tuition fees look set to increase across the board and future governments could make graduates repay student loans faster, in full and with more interest: we just don't know.
One of those organising the pressure on Liberal Democrat MPs, Gareth Epps, a member of the party's policy committee, said: "Underpinning the vote are a series of fault lines that have the potential, if mishandled, to make the fiasco over tuition fees look like a picnic".
"Your promise on immigration makes the deputy prime minister's promise on tuition fees look like the model of integrity," said Mr Miliband to the PM.
David Belsey of the Educational Institute of Scotland, a trade union, complains that the cuts will restrict access to university.Free tuition also looks financially unsustainable.
What SUNY should be doing, many of these critics say, is fighting for adequate financing and affordable tuition, not looking for higher tuition and private sources that will inevitably sap resources from the public contributions while expecting something in return.
It's certainly an area that's attracted interest — and funding — from a number of startups like Tuition.io which look to help employers get a little more creative about their benefits.
Tuition, of course, looked at it, laughed, and headed back up Mount Everest.
Many universities, hard up and unable to meet the huge demand for English tuition, gladly accept, looking at it as a beneficial arrangement for both sides.While it certainly is convenient, it is also controversial.
