Freshers in town @ £9000 pa. Universal education, or just Hooray Henrie/ttas?

[element]

I was in a large pub in Brighton last night that had a student night laid on, and there was the usual first week exuberance (and some Morris dancers quite randomly...), with the mainly youngsters get booze down themselves at a rate of knots :beer:

They all seemed clean (and soon to be, half) cut, and it made me think that they are probably paying tuition fees of around £9000 per year to be here

I'm just wondering if this situation excludes people from lower income families, even though I know there are fee breaks and fee loans, as well as the Brighton-rate subsistence costs

 

[Badger]

I was in a large pub in Brighton last night that had a student night laid on, and there was the usual first week exuberance (and some Morris dancers quite randomly...), with the mainly youngsters get booze down themselves at a rate of knots :beer:

They all seemed clean (and soon to be, half) cut, and it made me think that they are probably paying tuition fees of around £9000 per year to be here

I'm just wondering if this situation excludes people from lower income families, even though I know there are fee breaks and fee loans, as well as the Brighton-rate subsistence costs

They don't pay any money until after they leave uni and earn over £21,000 so the tuition fee isn't an issue in terms of affording to go to uni in the first place. The issue for students is the cost of living whilst studying and whether they get access to all the available loans.

 

[BigGully]

If your family are in receipt of benefits then you will be able to access funds to cover your fee's and travel and even a quarterly amount to help with living expenses and of course the fee's only become relevant once you have completed your degree and found employment with a salary of £21,000+.

The challenge falls for those hard working lower/middle income family's where you might have to find extra money to cover your Son's/Daughter's living and travelling expenses, the fee's are still covered though.

Of course the real shame was that for previous generations those that had no expectation/inclination to go to university then paid for an elite few that did, but that is history.

It seems quite reasonable that those wishing to attend university and benefit from that education with a likely better paid job, needn't be subsidised by the hard working labourer or tradesman that chose not to.

 

[element]

Thanks for the input. Glad to get an idea of the current situation :studentloanstillroundmyneck:

 

[Badger]

:studentloanstillroundmyneck:

Yeah, tell me about it!

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Students getting half cut?

When did that start? I'm obviously not including the occasion when I had to be wheeled back to Kemp Town on a handcart. But that was a VERY long time ago.

 

[sten_super]

Martin Lewis wrote an interesting article last week for The Telegraph about whether the current structure should be called 'debts' or 'contributions'. I think he makes a very good point that to many the terms of repayment are unclear.

Martin Lewis: Its time to stop calling student loans 'debts' - Telegraph

 

[Puppet Master]

I was in a large pub in Brighton last night that had a student night laid on, and there was the usual first week exuberance (and some Morris dancers quite randomly...), with the mainly youngsters get booze down themselves at a rate of knots :beer:

They all seemed clean (and soon to be, half) cut, and it made me think that they are probably paying tuition fees of around £9000 per year to be here

I'm just wondering if this situation excludes people from lower income families, even though I know there are fee breaks and fee loans, as well as the Brighton-rate subsistence costs

Standard for year one(there's probably just a few less this year with the new fees) you can usually tell who's going to do well from their degree when the constant boozing carries over into every subsequent freshers week

 

[SeagullSam]

I was in that pub last night, proper odd crowd in there

 

[El Presidente]

Tuition fees are in reality a falsely named graduate tax.

 

[El Presidente]

Of course the real shame was that for previous generations those that had no expectation/inclination to go to university then paid for an elite few that did, but that is history.

Eh? How did I end up at university then in 1980, coming from a family of spud thick Irish brickies and farmers?

 

[sten_super]

Tuition fees are in reality a falsely named graduate tax.

Except that the Tories want young Rupert's parents to be able to pay off the student debt as soon as he leaves University (or not take it in the first place) so that he doesn't have to suffer the terrible additional tax rate with all the other plebs.

 

[User removed 4]

Eh? How did I end up at university then in 1980, coming from a family of spud thick Irish brickies and farmers?

you said it EP !!

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Eh? How did I end up at university then in 1980, coming from a family of spud thick Irish brickies and farmers?

Bribery & mucho corruption perchance?

 

[Badger]

Martin Lewis wrote an interesting article last week for The Telegraph about whether the current structure should be called 'debts' or 'contributions'. I think he makes a very good point that to many the terms of repayment are unclear.

Martin Lewis: Its time to stop calling student loans 'debts' - Telegraph

That's a good article and it's exactly my thinking of the whole student "debt" thing. I went to uni when you had to pay £1100 UP-FRONT every year, this made it more expensive to actually go there in the first place. The whole worry about coming out with a huge debt hanging over you is nonsense, if you earn enough to be able to repay it then it is more of an inconvenience than a crippling monthly payment.

 

[Camicus]

That's a good article and it's exactly my thinking of the whole student "debt" thing. I went to uni when you had to pay £1100 UP-FRONT every year, this made it more expensive to actually go there in the first place. The whole worry about coming out with a huge debt hanging over you is nonsense, if you earn enough to be able to repay it then it is more of an inconvenience than a crippling monthly payment.

Im at uni as a mature student now and the fees is definatly putting poorer people off. As someone said to me why saddle yourself with£27k worth of debt when even graduates cant get a job

 

[El Presidente]

Bribery & mucho corruption perchance?

Are you suggesting my old man offered the VC at the Uni a new garden wall and 56lbs of Maris Piper Twinkle?

 

[El Presidente]

Im at uni as a mature student now and the fees is definatly putting poorer people off. As someone said to me why saddle yourself with£27k worth of debt when even graduates cant get a job

It's usually the graduates that can't spell that struggle to find a job. Employers have this outrageous assumption that this might be the minimum skill set that a graduate would be able to demonstrate.

 

[Badger]

Im at uni as a mature student now and the fees is definatly putting poorer people off. As someone said to me why saddle yourself with£27k worth of debt when even graduates cant get a job

But that's the point, if you don't get a job, you don't pay anything back. Also, if someone leaves uni with £40k of debt and another person with £10k of debt, both will have exactly the same monthly contribution is they earn say £25k, the only difference is the person with higher debt will pay for more years.

I can understand the issue with mature students because they often get the kind of upfront financial support as young undergrads. That would certainly put me off doing any postgrad study.

A lot of the people that get put off uni are ones that are considering doing a completely pointless course. IMO they need to get rid of all the Mickey Mouse degrees and encourage people to only go if they are planning to do something worthwhile.

 

[crabface]

Martin Lewis wrote an interesting article last week for The Telegraph about whether the current structure should be called 'debts' or 'contributions'. I think he makes a very good point that to many the terms of repayment are unclear.

Martin Lewis: Its time to stop calling student loans 'debts' - Telegraph

Thanks for posting that was a really interesting read. The whole time i was at uni and now that i am finished people are still very unclear about how their loans work and the repayment structure.