FAO: Anyone who wishes to show their support to students...

[Scotty Mac]

In ten years time we will all be complaining how thick the nation has become.

good - i might be able to get a job then!

 

[Storer68]

Seems to me that all previous administrations whether they be left or right have encouraged people to seek higher education as it massages the unemployment figures. Can't blame people for wanting to go to university when they are encouraged to do so. You might also argue that maybe some blame is down to the establishments who have encouraged and promoted so called 'frivolous' degrees in order to look after their own agendas.

Could be that they encouraged it, beacuse they actuallu believe that it is a good thing

 

[Westdene Wonder]

KneeOn, as you cannot understand the fact that you will not have to pay back the fees until you earn a certain amount,you would not have the ability to obtain a degree, not even a Micky Mouse one.
I would suggest that you are now aware that there are so many graduates who are still looking for a position that you come into the real world and become useful for instance a nurse,otherwise there is probably only one other profession for you.

 

[KneeOn]

KneeOn, as you cannot understand the fact that you will not have to pay back the fees until you earn a certain amount,you would not have the ability to obtain a degree, not even a Micky Mouse one.
I would suggest that you are now aware that there are so many graduates who are still looking for a position that you come into the real world and become useful for instance a nurse,otherwise there is probably only one other profession for you.

Actually i fully understand that. I also understand i'd be one of the 60% of students who'd be an average of 5 grand worse off under the new system, and that the government have been providing a service that is about to get more expencive for us and have a savage cut that means our 6/9 grand a year won't get us anything more.

I know there are graduates looking for a position and i'll be expecting to wait several years before my degree starts to pay off but i'm willing to do that. Thanks for the personal attack attached on the end there, amazing debate.

 

[El Presidente]

I think that there needs to be a rebalancing of Higher/Further Education that encourages people to seek qualifications that suit their abilities, and also a general societal attitude shift that it is in fact okay to get a job without going down the Higher/Further Education route.

I agree with you to a degree (geddit!) but the employment market is considerably different here in the UK to what it was 30-40 years ago, with a much larger service and finance sector, where some (not all) of the skills encouraged at higher education can be of benefit.

Also I think that each course that these institutions run should be vetted to see whether they merit any funding from the public purse.

Again I agree in principle, but my first hand observation of those vetting courses is that is a box ticking exercise, and tends to result in a lowest common denominator approach from the institution. I know an academic who introduced some new learning methods to a course, which resulted in a 9% increase in average marks from students, so the university solution was to kick him off the course because it made other lecturers look relatively bad.

 

[El Presidente]

KneeOn, as you cannot understand the fact that you will not have to pay back the fees until you earn a certain amount,you would not have the ability to obtain a degree, not even a Micky Mouse one.

Whilst you are correct in that repayments don't commence until someone is earning £21,000, what worries me is that it will discourage young people from less wealthy backgrounds from applying in the first place, and there will be a net cost to the taxpayer as a result. This is because these people will earn less, contribute less wealth to the economy (reducing GDP) and also pay less in income tax (reducing revenues).