Top up fees

Top up fees

Just wanted to get a bit of the peoples opinion on Top up fees as I'm currently involved in helping get our students down to the National Demonstration in October.

The general gist at the moment is that all students from England will be subjected to paying £3000 a year for their tuition fees.

Then in 2009 the goverment want to remove this "cap" and let Unis chanrge whatever they want.

The way things are going this is the beginning of the marketisation of education with Unis becomming much more of a business than an education unit.

What are peoples views on this?

Aye, im pretty pissed off about it, i think its only gonna cost me 1200 for this year but i was advised prior that its 3000. imo its a rip off and is putting financial worry into people looking to undertake degrees. 9k is alot of debt for a graduate (thats if they pass). i think the government should help subsidise these fees, after all hasnt it been education education education tone was rambling on about all these years.

well average student debt at the moment is 13,000 but over the next five years is looking to rise to 23,500!!!!!!!! it's disgusting!

Fair enough there are grants and loans but the middle people are going to miss out. The poor benefit all the grants, rich will always be rich but if you're in the middle ground it's looking like you're going to be screwed!

yeah im screwed with regards to grants, i can only get a small maintenance loan which doesnt help much, good thing ive still got a job (touch wood)

I think it's shit. Having an educated population benefits us all. We should have enough dosh in one of the richest countries in the world to educate people for free.

I think that is part of the problem, Tony blair is trying to force 50% of students to enter Uni but by doing this employers are no longer "impressed" by a degree and also it puts the pressure on to get involved in more and more things whilst at uni. This coinciding with the rise in fees is rubbish as people can barely afford to be at uni and so get part time jobs etc to keep up and so can no longer do any of the "fun" stuff they actually want to do.

I agree though I do believe that it is necessary for some people to go to Uni for specific things, e.g. Medicine (I would rather employ someone who'd studied rather than dummies guide teach yourself medicine lol). But I also think everyone should go if they want to, I just am really against that the rising fees are putting people off so mcuh.

slightly off topic but im typing this from sunderland university where i have to say im quite impressed with the features of their IT department.

im quite impressed with the way this degree is shaping out aswell as they changed it from the previous years and for the better, shame i had to do 2 years of shite first

maybe our uni fee's are being put to good use

good to see you're putting the IT facilities to good use

Totally fucking disgusting.

This goverment has totally sold down the river all of the ideals of the old labour party.

The goverment should be trying to reduce the level of debt of young poeple in society not encourage more why should the rich get the best level of education just because they can afford to put there kids to the better uni's.

got a freee 2 hour slot before i have to study neural nets and Artificial Intelligence

Our universities are grotesquely underfunded - I read the other day that the annual endowment fund at Harvard exceeds the ENTIRE UK higher education funding!!

On the other hand - our young people are some of the most debt-ridden in Europe.

Conclusion? We need to increase funding in our most productive areas.

More public funding for fewer places - ditch the micky mouse degrees, or let people pay full whack to do them, and lets see subsidised maths, science and technology places; where graduates become serious contributors to the UK economy, and their time at university is spent in valuable research, that increases our international standing and business relations.

Just get a student loan. It's piss all to pay off. I'm not bothered if I'm still paying it off at 50 cos it's such a tiny percentage of your wage.

yeh but now a student loan won't even cover the cost of going to Uni any more. I managed to scrape through on just about my student loan alone, however if I was coming to Uni now I'd have a struggle to do it how I have done.

The goverment have totally sold out but what's even worse is that none of the other parties have any better ideas on what to do. One answer that NUS is suggesting is that education is free but we have progressive taxation as we start earning .

The shocker is that Unis are offering a "discounted fee" to students that can afford to pay all of their fees straight off...ie the rich. Which is ridiculous as just because they can afford it doesn't mean they should get a discount, it's not them that need the financial help.

Get a loan, two overdrafts and a credit card then.

Bollocks has it. I'm apathetic about student loans because it has no meaningful impact on my salary, and thanks to my degree I've got a class job.

Save up before then, like they do in america. i don't see whats wrong with paying your fees back once your earning - sorts the people out who REALLY want to learn.

Sometimes people do college and uni courses cause they can't be arsed to do owt else so it's a laugh for a few years, someone else pays.

however, i'm totally suprised it was LABOUR who thought this up