Liverpool FC Forum

[Gerrard30391]

As a student myself, I'm not going to lie when I say that I am ashamed and embarrassed to have any connection with the imbeciles that descended on the capital as recently as yesterday.

However, the proposed raising of tuition fees to £9k a year is utterly ridiculous. Especially when the governments argument against it is, we shall raise the repayment cap to £21k a year. Which means you only have to repay your loans after you earn over £21k. And even then, you only surrender 9% of what ever you earn over that.

Then, I have just seen a letter from the local MP in which he says there will be no upfront fees. Brilliant, we never paid any before. He then goes on to say that houses with low income will receive more support, meaning university is more accessible for all. They already get that too.

Then I watch the news and see this, David Cameron on the attack of Prince Charles' Rolls Royce "lessons must be learnt". Hmm, maybe they would if people could afford them!

Rant over.

P.S. I am not condoning the protests!

[maypaxvobiscum]

i feel your pain. im doing the University of London as an external student here in Singapore and fees have been raised too. previously, we would pay around $30,000 for 3 years, which includes books and exam fees. now, since the hike, we pay $42,000 and it does NOT include exam fees and books which we have to make separate payments. 100% garbage!

was there any justification for the increase?

[Gerrard30391]

They say that that due to the rise in undergraduates by about 700,000 people in just under 15 years means that it cannot now be afforded. Over here we get no books with that. I'm not sure on the conversion rate with your currency so I wouldn't know if that's expensive. Sounds it though! I've just forked out £130 on track suits because the uni won't provide them due to lack of funds.

Oh and to top it all off, I've just heard a review into funding for universities, my uni is one of four in the country in very high risk of going bust!

[metalhead]

Tuition fees are on the rise everywhere mate, in universities where I come from, 1 year costs around 13k dollars, pretty steep if you ask me. Its a shame that governments use education to make more money, instead of concentrating in educating the future leaders.

[andy_g]

students that still don't know when and where and how to use an apostrophe should be charged double

[metalhead]

students that still don't know when and where and how to use an apostrophe should be charged double

don't mind me I'm a fluent arabic speaker

[maypaxvobiscum]

i dont see how increasing fees are a good thing if it leaves the uni in a state where its vulnerable to going bust...

[Gerrard30391]

students that still don't know when and where and how to use an apostrophe should be charged double

I am now embarrassed to say for the past 5 minutes I've been reading my posts to see where it was, then I checked the title.....

[metalhead]

i dont see how increasing fees are a good thing if it leaves the uni in a state where its vulnerable to going bust...

unis rarely go bust.

[Gerrard30391]

Well it's there, in black and white (Ok blue and pink)

[worcester_red]

I think it is a great shame that tuition fees have had to go up but the reason for it is simple. It is becuase of the idiotic policies of the last government that more and more people should go to University. Now I am all for Universities being accessible to all, rich and poor, but I am completely against the rise in numbers going to universities, it should be an elite institution of higher learning. When I went to University I studied a sensible and worthwhile course, engineering, where I knew there was a job waiting for me at the end of it. Now you have scores of semi-literate yobs doing various social science claptrap courses where they come out the other end as highly qualified unemployed people, it is utter lunacy.
in any case the changes introuduced don't affect the poorest students, they actually benefit by getting more grants, it is the middle classes who get affected by this which is unfair in itself.

As for the people rioting yesterday, I suspect the majority were anorchists who jump on any bandwagon, it was an absolute disgrace the damage they caused and the police should have been much tougher including the use of tear gas and water cannons.

[Gerrard30391]

Yeh, I couldn't agree more. People being accepted to HE and FE institutions without the correct qualifications. I know people on my course who didn't meet the criteria for entry given to them when they were accepted a place. That's where the fault lies. If universities didn't take people on who don't make the grade (excuse the pun) then we wouldn't be in the situation.

[Bad Bob]

When I went to University I studied a sensible and worthwhile course, engineering, where I knew there was a job waiting for me at the end of it. Now you have scores of semi-literate yobs doing various social science claptrap courses where they come out the other end as highly qualified unemployed people, it is utter lunacy.

I loved my 'social science claptrap' courses.  While all my engineering mates were snuggling up to their scientific calculators and sweating through their weekly trig assignments I was at the campus pub chatting my way into some nubile young co-ed's pants with my profound views on Marx and Foucault.  See, unlike my engineering mates, I actually got to enjoy university and still managed to get a great job at the end of it.     

[andy_g]

ever since universities started being run as businesses they started to lose the plot a little. the place i used to teach at had to accept students below the required level to make sure that there were enough fee payers to keep the course alive. it was even better if they were foreign students because they paid even more.

i'm a huge believer in education for all though, and i'm also a huge believer in education in the arts, culture, literature, social sciences, philosophy and all these other so called meaningless degrees. the amount a society invests in its culture shows how much that society values itself. the arts in their widest sense have always been a symbol of the success of cultures since paleolithic times. the scary thing now is that less and less students will choose to get themselves further into debt to study the arts now, as there is so much pressure from society to do 'useful' things like engineering, computer science, etc etc. engineers are useful, of course, but when we have a society full of engineers and scientists with no cultural input we'll see a very impoverished situation.

as for the students being anarchists - i'd be surprised if most of them knew the meaning of the word, and even more surprised if unlike our engineering friend they didn't make that lazy assumption that anarchy equates with violence. what i'm seeing is a generation that has finally woken up and smelt the bullshít and decided that enough is enough. violence isn't the best answer but it doesn't half make you get noticed.

[Gerrard30391]

When I went to University I studied a sensible and worthwhile course, engineering, where I knew there was a job waiting for me at the end of it. Now you have scores of semi-literate yobs doing various social science claptrap courses where they come out the other end as highly qualified unemployed people, it is utter lunacy.

I loved my 'social science claptrap' courses.  While all my engineering mates were snuggling up to their scientific calculators and sweating through their weekly trig assignments I was at the campus pub chatting my way into some nubile young co-ed's pants with my profound views on Marx and Foucault.  See, unlike my engineering mates, I actually got to enjoy university and still managed to get a great job at the end of it.