Universities push for higher fees

mzqa395

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7946912.stm

Two thirds of vice-chancellors, speaking anonymously, said they needed to raise fees, suggesting levels of between £4,000 and £20,000 per year.

The_One_Who

Yes, and good on them! I highly doubt it would go up to £20,000 for most courses, probably £7,000 at most for the near future. A university education is a privilege not a right.

I love this from the article: "This has angered the National Union of Students, which wants to entirely replace the fee system with repayments linked to later earnings." Yes, because that is practical...

And this:""In the context of the current recession, it is extremely arrogant for university vice chancellors to be fantasising about charging their students even higher fees and plunging them into over £32,000 of debt," said NUS president Wes Streeting." Universities will be feeling the pinch too. NUS themselves are a financial blackhole.

lotties_mum

A privilege for the rich or the educated? please elaborate.

waterhouse_melons

Im in year 12, looked at a uni on sunday and now im sad.
Why do they have to increase the prices now? I know we are in an economic recession so that does provide a reason for the uni's charging higher prices; But in long term, with people leaving the education system earlier, its going to be even worse! Education, education,education. Someone should do something about this *coughs*Gordon Brown*coughs*!!

The_One_Who

lotties_mum wrote: »

A privilege for the rich or the educated? please elaborate.

For those who actually want to go there and who are capable of going. School kids are being pushed more and more into university when many don't want to be there and don't know what they want to study.

There will still be student loans available I'm sure. Or students can take a couple of years out of education in order to earn some money, get experience, figure out what they want to do and then do it.

I need to do a masters but cannot afford it at the moment so at the end of my undergraduate I will probably need to take a year out and work.

Helix

waterhouse_melons wrote: »

Im in year 12, looked at a uni on sunday and now im sad.
Why do they have to increase the prices now? I know we are in an economic recession so that does provide a reason for the uni's charging higher prices; But in long term, with people leaving the education system earlier, its going to be even worse! Education, education,education. Someone should do something about this *coughs*Gordon Brown*coughs*!!

You will probably just be OK. Its likely if any changes did happen it won't be implemented until at least 2011. The review they are doing on tuition fees won't finish until 2010 and its unlikely leave enough time for the changes to be implemented for that year.

As long as you start on current system any future changes won't have any effect on you.

waterhouse_melons

Thanks Helix, now i feel big headed
How comes there is this demand for the prices to suddenly go up anyway?

Oldernotwiser

waterhouse_melons wrote: »

Thanks Helix, now i feel big headed
How comes there is this demand for the prices to suddenly go up anyway?

The existing fees of £3,000 cover only a small part of the actual cost, which is in the region of £11,000 pa. What is being suggested is that individual students should cover a larger proportion of the costs themselves. Universities in this country are seriously underfunded.

omelette451

University has never been 'free'. Where it has been 'free at the point of use' it was effectively subsidised by every taxpayer in the country, regardless of their background, which effectively led to bricklayers paying for stockbrokers' kids to go to Oxford (because, on average, it was the better-off who most took up the opportunities). Charging students fees effectively passes the burden of paying (some of) the cost of education to those who are going to benefit from it, i.e. the students themselves, thus evening out the system and making it fairer for all. Students from poorer backgrounds get a double-helping of goodness in the form of grants and bursaries which effectively make higher education free for them, and no university will ever be allowed to increase fees without correspondingly increasing the bursaries they offer. For this reason I think the NUS has shot itself in the foot, and (even as a recent graduate) I support fees. I do think there should be a ceiling, and the latest proposed increase to 7k pretty much hits it, but I don't have a problem with the idea per se.

horrorhag

Yes i really want to pay more for my 6 hours of contact time!

Oldernotwiser

horrorhag wrote: »

Yes i really want to pay more for my 6 hours of contact time!

Contact time is only a tiny part of what your fees cover; you're at university to learn, not to be taught!