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My progression through secondary education has been marked by three emotions: fear, relief, and disappointment. Fear - of failing to achieve good enough grades, or get in to college or uni, or survive either financially or mentally if I do; relief - at passing, getting in, or surviving; and disappointment at not achieving one of these goals. Now I’m preparing for university the familiar feelings are back again.

There has been much debate about whether £3,000 top-up fees will dissuade working class students from applying to university by saddling them with huge debt.

Top-up fees can only add to current bureaucratic hurdles between students and higher education. I found the process of completing my long and complex loan application frightening and offputting. I was intensely relieved when it was finished, yet also disappointed that even this financial help could not allay the growing fear of financial "failure" at university. I wonder how those students who are not considered typical applicants to university - who have taken a vocational route to higher education, or who live in low income families - are going to be encouraged to apply by an even more complex set of forms and criteria with even less certainty that they will be financially supported at university.

When I think of the amount of money I will owe when I complete my course I am uncomfortable, and I am very disappointed that our government appears to advocate debt and borrowing at a time when the British people owe more than ever before. I will be entitled to full financial support next year, yet I am afraid to spend the money I will be entitled to without being sure I can repay it when I’ve finished my course.

Despite the argument that increased tuition fees will reduce the immediate financial burden on students as they enter higher education, I am not alone in worrying that it is not the direct outlay of money which deters me, and those in a similar financial position from applying to university, but the confusion around applying for and managing what is a large, ongoing debt.

Students have a great deal to worry about in the current education system, and we will always be dogged by our fear of, and disappointment over, our own failures. But over the next few months we all hope that our dominant emotion will be relief. We hope to be relieved about passing our exams and getting into university. We should not be discouraged from taking this route by the bureaucracy of the student support system, or leave school disappointed with the options available to us.

Kierra Box is a student.