Ah, that's a shame, Togo. Still, allow me to put my disagreement this way: perhaps we should see University Education not as a privilege, but as an investment. Then society does indeed pick up the bill for University Education, but recognises that in doing so it's encouraging younger people to get better qualifications, better training, and a better chance to be able to contribute back to the economy in later years by having a higher-skilled job.
So yes, the taxpayer would foot the bill. But it would do so knowing that it has a great chance of reaping the benefits later. Some things are worth paying for. Nor is it that alien an approach anyway; that's how the system works in most Scandinavian countries (with an exception for some foreign students).
Also, as a final thought, a lot of the tuition fee debt goes unpaid anyway. So taxpayers *still* end up footing a lot of the bill. Which raises the question: what's the point of charging tuition fees in the first place, if much of it ends up not getting paid back?
In 2014, for example, David Willetts stated (in a written letter) that approximately 45% of graduates would not pay back their loans in full. That basically means that the government only just breaks even on the deal, no extra money is earned, and the policy really only looks like it's saving the taxpayer from expense, rather than actually doing so, while ending up saddling many students with a great deal of debt, and all the stress that entails. They can overstate that stress (although I make a point of never looking at my own letters), but it's a policy that's worth it rather a lot less than you think.