GRcade

A nice way to stop the lower class from getting a higher education!

Personally I don't give a rats ass now I have graduated, but I still have £16,000 in loans still mounting up!

Sums up what Prescott was moaning about a few weeks ago on BBC2.

Shadow wrote:

Moggy wrote:Or the bus driver (with a media degree) driving me around for free when I am a pensioner

Does anyone know anybody with a media degree who managed to get a job in a media industry?

Me

Something needs to be done to our education system. We are loosing are best lectures and scientists to american universities and our education system is getting dumbed down.

I think we should make GCSE's and A-levels a lot harder then stop all the pointless degrees that are going around and make it so only the brightest students go and get degrees.

We should then offer more part time degree level courses to help people further there careers.

This is taking the piss mayne.

I was lucky enough to get government grants and a student loan and was just about able to do uni when fees were £1,100 per year.

My question is, how was they able to run unis with £1,100 a year and now they want £6,000???

lex-man wrote:We are loosing are best lectures and scientists to american universities and our education system is getting dumbed down.

Ain't that the truth!

lex-man wrote:Something needs to be done to our education system. We are loosing are best lectures and scientists to american universities and our education system is getting dumbed down.

I think we should make GCSE's and A-levels a lot harder then stop all the pointless degrees that are going around and make it so only the brightest students go and get degrees.

We should then offer more part time degree level courses to help people further there careers.

The other approach is to just make teaching as a whole better so those who are willing to learn are a lot better educated. Do they still have 'sets' in schools now? I remember that I did quite well when I was in the top set for everything and most (but not all) of the teachers did an excellent job. The ones who didn't were absolutely awful, there was very little middle ground.

Making an exam harder isn't going to do much if the level of teaching stays the same. It'll probably make things worse.

And I do take issue with the implication the exams are too easy, both at GCSE and A level. It's tabloid drivel propagated by people with a chip on their shoulder about the younger generation.

Whilst ive now finished uni and obviously find it easier to criticize things, the fact is that your £3000 per year doesnt go very far at all. Half immediately goes for upkeep/admin/maintenance of the university buildings and staff which means only half actually goes to your course.

Assuming your lecturers also hire themselves as a research team as most universities do then your £1500 would buy you about 2 weeks of tuition! Im not saying they should go up, but youre getting better value for money than you realise. The arguement of course is that you always have the choice of NOT paying your tuition fees (or getting your LEA to do it as most will) but this will mean you cant go to uni.

Carlos wrote:Whilst ive now finished uni and obviously find it easier to criticize things, the fact is that your £3000 per year doesnt go very far at all. Half immediately goes for upkeep/admin/maintenance of the university buildings and staff which means only half actually goes to your course.

Assuming your lecturers also hire themselves as a research team as most universities do then your £1500 would buy you about 2 weeks of tuition! Im not saying they should go up, but youre getting better value for money than you realise. The arguement of course is that you always have the choice of NOT paying your tuition fees (or getting your LEA to do it as most will) but this will mean you cant go to uni.

What the strawberry float else is there!?

By the way most Uni's are undergoing massive improvements to the buildings, they are doing pretty well for themselves.

Carlos wrote:Whilst ive now finished uni and obviously find it easier to criticize things, the fact is that your £3000 per year doesnt go very far at all. Half immediately goes for upkeep/admin/maintenance of the university buildings and staff which means only half actually goes to your course.

Assuming your lecturers also hire themselves as a research team as most universities do then your £1500 would buy you about 2 weeks of tuition! Im not saying they should go up, but youre getting better value for money than you realise. The arguement of course is that you always have the choice of NOT paying your tuition fees (or getting your LEA to do it as most will) but this will mean you cant go to uni.

Not forgetting that a typical lecture will have at least 100 people in it. Mine have around 250. The cost of those lectures is therefore reduced because of the attendance - the lecturer is teaching more people at once in the same time frame. Apply this on a smaller scale to tutorials and seminars. They're usually less frequent or shorter and the classes are usually about 30 or so people in size. So while the tutor is talking to fewer people at once, it's not happening as often. Cost cut.

I'm not arguing the value for money aspect of this, just the assumption that £1500 will realistically get you very little because there's no accounting for the normal student turnout.

Elfhours wrote:

John Galt wrote:With the increase to fees I would be in £36,000 of debt but I still think this is a small price to pay considering the money I'm likely to earn after the course compared to the amount I would be earning had I have gone straight in to employment.

LOLZ. Just you wait. Unless your degree is highly specialised, you'll more than likely be swimming in the same pond as the rest of the fish. And if that specialism is something Science-based... oh dear. You'll have to move abroad to get any real money.

What's your degree, fella? I might cringe less at your post if it's the right answer, as there are exceptions!

I'm doing a MEng in Electronic Engineering. I know for a fact that Electrical Engineers are in short supply (the scholarships they're giving out at the moment are ridiculous) and I could go in to any numeracy literate job with the degree too. It helps that I'm doing it at one of the best departments in the UK but then if I had no hope of going somewhere good I wouldn't have bothered. This may all sound naive and pretentious but I genuinely believe that I could come out of Uni in fours years with a 1st and a £25,000+ salary

Elfhours wrote:

John Stait wrote:I think the point most people don't realise about the top up fees is that the money isloaned to you so any financial loss doesn't occur until you're starting your job.

Everyone realises that, fella. It doesn't change the fact that the system discourages less well-off families from entry, as it's a helluvalot of debt to saddle yourself with.

Very few people I know at Uni are having their tuition fees paid for them by parents. A lot of people receive parental support for living expenses but there are non-repayable bursaries available for people from poor backgrounds. There really is nothing that separates the rich from the poor in terms of these fees.

What on earth are you people talking about?

University is free.

FishFingers wrote:University is free.

Read as, poorly funded to the extent that it puts at risk the status of Scottish institutions.

FishFingers wrote:What on earth are you people talking about?

University is free.

IDGI.

In an ideal world, they'd make it cheaper and more exclusive, but universities are simply expanding businesses reliant on a steady cashflow.

I'm doing English with Creative Writing, but I don't really expect to get into creative writing much. I'd be happy with a job in the Civil Service or in a company in the human resources department or something. I didn't really have a career plan going into university so I decided to go for a more general degree rather than a specialised one. I didn't get into the Civil Service fast stream so I've just applied to the HR department directly. I have some tests to do before the 10th of December so I'd better get going on them soon.

FishFingers, you ignorant fool. Maybe it's free for where you're from, but for those of us who go outside, it's not.

My tuition fee is about £80 each year.

*never went to uni*

*is in the market for jobs paying 28k*

I'm totally against this ever since I did a mental calculation the other day to work out how much debt I'm in. Hopefully this will come in after I've graduated.

I've just started uni and I expect my debt to be around 21k when I leave.
The good thing about student debt is that you can just ignore it, it's best to put any extra money you have into a high interest savings account and just pay the minimum payments on your student debt as the interest rate on that is so low.