Student protest, London 10 November

[mossdog 10]

Today is a sad day.

 

University should be about educating the elite. It is not about taking a Surf Board Design Course for 4 hours a week over 3 years.

 

People are missing the boat on this. Each good University has an alumni. I donate to my old uni. The Alumni fund will help poorer students attend the University. This is common in the USA - the Universities ask Alumni (who are earning a decent wage) to give something back to their Uni each month.

 

We have to stop the elitist approach. Anyone can go to Oxbridge - anyone who is clever enough, has worked hard enough. There are bursaries and scholarships - you need to know where to look for them. Private schools like Eton accept many poor students - some on full bursaries. Again ANYONE can apply for these - you need to show you are academically able and can contribute to the school (e.g. play the flute in the school etc).

 

The amount of money spent on shipping 50,000 students to London today could have funded many poor students through their degree courses.

 

People need to start asking - do I need to go to Uni. The whole system needs to be culled - there are too many Universities with too many 'Noddy' courses. Young people today need to start saving for their education - it ain't free, never has been - state education may seem free but it costs vasts amounts of money which people take for granted.

This post needs repeating again and again and again...............TILL IT SINKS IN!

[Maxster 10]

I had some sympathy for the students until watching the news this morning.

 

Whatever the new fee is £6K - £9K double or treble it to pay for the damage.

 

Peaceful protests are fine; breaking glass, storming a building and throwing fire extinguishers off roofs how is that going to help?

 

The public will just turn against these idiots and rightly so.

[llamatron 10]

It's 30 years and 9% of anything over 21k. Which on top of the announced VAT increase to 20%, NI increase to 12% and new state pension payments of 4% is a lot of money.

 

where did you get this from? Its currently 30 years but the bbc reported that would go down to 25?

[llamatron 10]

If it's such a small amount they will have to pay, then how will it help reduce the deficit? This is a major increase in fees. You can repeat Cameron's spin all you like, but it doesn't make it true.

 

Its not in any way supposed to be paying off the deficit, all it is meant to do is make going to University sustainable. At the moment and for many years it has not been.

[Mecky 10]

I had some sympathy for the students until watching the news this morning.

 

Whatever the new fee is £6K - £9K double or treble it to pay for the damage.

 

Peaceful protests are fine; breaking glass, storming a building and throwing fire extinguishers off roofs how is that going to help?

 

The public will just turn against these idiots and rightly so.

 

I disagree, it's the parents who also have to pay for the education and it looks as if they will have to pay more. That's not going to go down well is it?

[llamatron 10]

So go to university and then be doomed to a life of poverty because it's unlikely people will get a decent wage. I repay my loan each month but the amount I pay does not even cover the interest. I'm a proud person and like to pay my way, but on my civil service wage that just isn't possible and considering Im going to be unemployed soon, the government will have to wait even longer to get its money back. Even if and when I get a new job, the chances are I will not be able to make a dent in my loan. I'm not the other person either.

 

but thats the point, you never have to pay it back. The taxpayer is losing out not you! You are effectively just paying a small tax.

[llamatron 10]

I'm not a student either, but if i have a child and he/she should want an education, i'd like to think it isn't going to cripple them for the rest of their lives. I'd protest forever on this issue. I believe it to be inherently and fundamentally wrong.

 

the choice is your child pays or all those people struggling to pay for food and heating on an actual low wage pay? I am happy to pay for my further education as I now have a decent wage and can afford it. When I didn't have a good wage I paid nothing.

[L00b 441]

I disagree, it's the parents who also have to pay for the education and it looks as if they will have to pay more.

Why and how?

 

In the context of "free University", it's all the taxpayers, not just the student's parents.

 

In the context of "paid-for University", it's the student and/or any sponsors of the student (incl. parents, however not necessarily).

 

Some Brit students with an aptitude for language could do worse than go study abroad (intra-EU) instead, and get the EU to pay for their degree. The EU paid for mine (at SHU), and I worked for my living expenses. My parents didn't contribute one iota - nor would I have asked or wanted them to: Uni was my choice, not theirs.

 

FWIW, go4it's earlier post had it spot on. Going to Uni should be earned, by showing aptitude for it throughout earlier "standard" (and free) State education. A reduction in student numbers will balance Unis' financial requirements in view of reduced State funding. So Unis are going back to elitism? They should never have devalued what they provide, to the extent that they did, in the first place. It has led, IMHO, to a "HE bubble" entirely comparable to the credit bubble, and which needs addressing.

Edited November 11, 2010 by L00b

[llamatron 10]

Have you talked to any Lib Dem voters since the election? Most of them feel betrayed (because they were). The only people who voted for what the government are doing are the 34% who voted tory. That leaves 66% who didn't vote for it. Hardly a mandate.

 

so would you prefer no government-yes that would work well!

[Mecky 10]

Why and how?

 

In the context of "free University", it's all the taxpayers, not just the student's parents.

 

In the context of "paid-for University", it's the student and/or any sponsors of the student (incl. parents, however not necessarily).

 

Some Brit students with an aptitude for language could do worse than go study abroad (intra-EU) instead, and get the EU to pay for their degree. The EU paid for mine (at SHU), and I worked for my living expenses. My parents didn't contribute one iota - nor would I have asked or wanted them to: Uni was my choice, not theirs.

 

FWIW, go4it's earlier post had it spot on. Going to Uni should be earned, by showing aptitude for it throughout earlier "standard" (and free) State education. A reduction in student numbers will balance Unis' financial requirements in view of reduced State funding. So Unis are going back to elitism? They should never have devalued what they provide, to the extent that they did, in the first place. It has led, IMHO, to a "HE bubble" entirely comparable to the credit bubble, and which needs addressing.

 

 

Parents help pay for fees and living costs, the larger part I feel.

[Nemex 10]

Today is a sad day.

 

University should be about educating the elite. It is not about taking a Surf Board Design Course for 4 hours a week over 3 years.

 

People are missing the boat on this. Each good University has an alumni. I donate to my old uni. The Alumni fund will help poorer students attend the University. This is common in the USA - the Universities ask Alumni (who are earning a decent wage) to give something back to their Uni each month.

 

We have to stop the elitist approach. Anyone can go to Oxbridge - anyone who is clever enough, has worked hard enough. There are bursaries and scholarships - you need to know where to look for them. Private schools like Eton accept many poor students - some on full bursaries. Again ANYONE can apply for these - you need to show you are academically able and can contribute to the school (e.g. play the flute in the school etc).

 

The amount of money spent on shipping 50,000 students to London today could have funded many poor students through their degree courses.

 

People need to start asking - do I need to go to Uni. The whole system needs to be culled - there are too many Universities with too many 'Noddy' courses. Young people today need to start saving for their education - it ain't free, never has been - state education may seem free but it costs vasts amounts of money which people take for granted.

 

This post needs repeating again and again and again...............TILL IT SINKS IN!

 

Second this.

 

The system needs to change all together. Personally I think it would make more sense for School/College leavers to secure positions with employers as apprentices/trainees or something similar and then attend university as required for that position.

[L00b 441]

Parents help pay for fees and living costs, the larger part I feel.

Well, the way you posted earlier, and now, makes this sound compulsory

 

My turn to disagree.

 

Come to think about it for a second or two, I don't know (personally) any ex-student who went through Uni with their parents' help (I don't claim for this to be representative ...just maybe symptomatic. Or, if representative at all, then that would be of the persons I tend to associate with/appreciate more).

 

Maybe propsective students should consider whether they have a "right to go to Uni" at all, and take their responsibilities (at an age where they should, really), rather than expect the State and/or Mum & Dad to put them through it. It used to be case for decades, after all, with no particular ill-effects.