GRcade

Student debt 'to reach £25,000' for 2010 intake

Student debt levels are projected to rise to £25,000 for those starting university this year, research suggests.

The annual survey of 2,000 UK students for university guide Push also found average yearly debt had increased by 5.4% to £5,600 per year of study.

"We are at a crunch point for student debt. Many talented potential students may shy away when they hear a degree will cost £25,000."

Full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-10952303

When I was a teenager you could still go to university for free. Your parents might help out with living costs, but you'd get housing, grant, etc all on the state. My generation has let the next one down. It's a betrayal, really. We had it good, but you lot? We shafted you good and proper. Sorry about that.

There is basically no point going to University now. Kids are better off getting real life experience.

Cal wrote:you'd get housing, grant, etc all on the state.

I thought I got it good up here in Scotland...but housing?!

Beans wrote:There is basically no point going to University now. Kids are better off getting real life experience.

Depends how you're quantifying better. Also depends on the degree.

When I left average student debt was £20000, and this was when tuition fees were £1000 a year. Bit of a non-news story surely?

Didn't your dad pay for everything?

I finished Uni in 97 with 5 Grand in debt. Five times that is staggering!


In those days (I'm strawberry floating OLD!) you went to Uni for a laugh and for the social aspect as much as getting a great degree and career. It was also staving off having a proper job for three more years.


Nowadays you need to think carefully about whether your degree is worth having weighed up against the debts you will accrue. A so called 'Airy fairy' degree in something with no practical application or employability factor could well become classed as a 'waste of time'.

I strawberry floated about for most of my time at Uni in leeds 94-97 and just about scraped a piss poor degree (but a degree nonetheless).
My nursing diploma was a different matter - it was a vocational course with a clear and defined career arc attached - and i worked hard to achieve what i did.
A lot of kids are going to have to think very hard about their choices.

Apart from the little rich strawberry floats of course!

I'm waiting for the SLC to go bankrupt, because they will. I doubt it will wipe out your debts though.

I won't get into the economic concerns but to me, rising costs for higher education seems to be evidence of society moving backwards. I don't know about everyone else, but in my mind this seems to go against the idea of progress towards a more egalitarian world where people are more enlightened and cultural is more sophisticated. Of course, this depends if you are one of those people who thinks education is good in itself or not.

Red wrote:

Beans wrote:There is basically no point going to University now. Kids are better off getting real life experience.

Depends how you're quantifying better. Also depends on the degree.

Better in terms of life time earnings.

Someone with 3 years work experience in whatever industry is far more valuable in the workplace, than someone with no commercial experience and a worthless degree and this is coming from someone who went to Uni.

The only disciplines I can think of where a degree is absolutely essential is teaching, medicine and law. Otherwise the sense of achievement you get from a degree isn't worth £25k to the individual or the tax payer.

I'm starting my 3rd year in September, and I wish I hadn't gone to uni in the first place.

3 years down the pan

Meep wrote:I won't get into the economic concerns but to me, rising costs for higher education seems to be evidence of society moving backwards. I don't know about everyone else, but in my mind this seems to go against the idea of progress towards a more egalitarian world where people are more enlightened and cultural is more sophisticated. Of course, this depends if you are one of those people who thinks education is good in itself or not.

Enlightenment and learning are obviously important, but how much do you really learn at Uni. They generally teach you how to pass the exams.

Beans wrote:The only disciplines I can think of where a degree is absolutely essential is teaching, medicine and law.

Various sciences, engineering and computing. Finance and business too.

Beans wrote:Otherwise the sense of achievement you get from a degree isn't worth £25k to the individual or the tax payer.

Speak for yourself.

Mafro wrote:

Beans wrote:The only disciplines I can think of where a degree is absolutely essential is teaching, medicine and law.

Various sciences, engineering and computing. Finance and business too.

Business is debatable. But I'd agree, most of those jobs need a degree to get your foot in the door. Most sciences require at least a masters or PHD to make the degree worthwhile.

You call it debt but it is in reality an interest free loan which you only start paying back when you earn £15,000 or more. Even then you only pay a small amount back each month. So really a different term should be used to decribe it to be honest.

It's not interest free.

andretmzt wrote:You call it debt but it is in reality an interest free loan which you only start paying back when you earn £15,000 or more. Even then you only pay a small amount back each month. So really a different term should be used to decribe it to be honest.

This is also true. It's not a debt that hangs around your debt and becomes suffocating like a 25k credit card bill would. They won't be sending the bayliffs round either

Mafro wrote:

Beans wrote:The only disciplines I can think of where a degree is absolutely essential is teaching, medicine and law.

Various sciences, engineering and computing. Finance and business too.

Can't speak for sciences.

Computing it definitely isn't essential. Industry qualifications like MCSE, CCIE etc are far more important.

Finance and business is a definite no also. Again industry qualifications are far more important, but also its about who you know and whether you can sell.

andretmzt wrote:You call it debt but it is in reality an interest free loan which you only start paying back when you earn £15,000 or more. Even then you only pay a small amount back each month. So really a different term should be used to decribe it to be honest.

But the automatic repayments, even above the average wage in this country, no longer cover the interest charged. They say it's interest free, but you still get charged enough to notice. Plus I read somewhere that more than half student loans have NEVER been paid into.

It's a ticking debt time bomb.