Universities push for higher fees

Oldernotwiser

dizzie wrote: »

Not sure that the maths will add up on this one. Especially if student loan rates stay so low.

Incidentally,I had a look at the University of Buckingham's (UK's ony independant Uni) website. Interestingly, despite fees of around £8k per year, they have managed to save students money by condensing degree courses into 2 years (so student pays less maintenance costs). Surely that would be possible with some (though clearly not all) degree courses at the rest of our universities?

Not sure what you mean by your first point.

Re Buckingham; obviously they're trying to recruit people so they WOULD say that! The same is true for comments from someone promoting distance learning degrees. It's always a good idea to look at who's trying to sell you something before accepting what they say as Gospel!

There may be a place for 2 year degrees although I doubt that students on these would have the time or energy to top up their incomes with part time work.

Oldernotwiser

CLAPTON wrote: »

Lets be clear here, many mortgage lenders take student loan repayments into consideration when assessing the amount they will lend.

It's also true that many won't.

Unless you're on a very high salary and so have high repayment levels, it's not going to make that much difference.

olly300

dizzie wrote: »

Then there is the question of the pay rises awarded to University academics and Chancellors etc this year which seemed to be extremely generous given that we are mean't to be in a recession and much of the private sector is looking at no pay increase this year....

University academics in the UK are poorly paid compared to their foreign peers and we have lost and loose, a lot of them to foreign universities due to this.

Chancellors have awarded them generous pay rises over the years regardless of the situation of every one else who is a member of university staff.

The problem with doing a condensed 2 year university degrees is if you are doing a subject that has a vocational element i.e. engineering then it's not possible to put in a summer industrial placement. I know a few universities who do this and this helps the student as a lot of time they are able to get a job with the company after graduating.

melancholly

it's funny - my university emails (last and current place) are/were filled with comments from the Chancellor about how bad the financial outlook is and how payrises (and in some cases any recruitment) are frozen.... lots of places have been on recruitment freezes, even when staff leave. i'm sure some academics must be getting these great pay rises, i've just never met one who has!!

CLAPTON

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

It's also true that many won't.

Unless you're on a very high salary and so have high repayment levels, it's not going to make that much difference.

what do you consider a very high salary?

Oldernotwiser

CLAPTON wrote: »

what do you consider a very high salary?

For a young graduate, £25,000 upwards.

Oldernotwiser

olly300 wrote: »

University academics in the UK are poorly paid compared to their foreign peers and we have lost and loose, a lot of them to foreign universities due to this.

Chancellors have awarded them generous pay rises over the years regardless of the situation of every one else who is a member of university staff.

The problem with doing a condensed 2 year university degrees is if you are doing a subject that has a vocational element i.e. engineering then it's not possible to put in a summer industrial placement. I know a few universities who do this and this helps the student as a lot of time they are able to get a job with the company after graduating.

I thanked you, having skipped the middle paragraph! I've not come across anyone for whom this is true and the iddea makes a nonsense of your first paragraph.

Voyager2002

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I thanked you, having skipped the middle paragraph! I've not come across anyone for whom this is true and the iddea makes a nonsense of your first paragraph.

Yes, the offending paragraph provides an excellent example of how careless typing or use of English can destroy meaning completely. I think that although the word "them" was used, what was intended was "themselves".

CLAPTON

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

For a young graduate, £25,000 upwards.

by way of an example ..from the nationwide website

25k salary and no SLC will lend 102,500
25k but with SLC (75 per month) will only lend 98,800

on 30k similar figures are 123,000 and 117,440

I guess it depends whether one sees this as significant.

Oldernotwiser

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Yes, the offending paragraph provides an excellent example of how careless typing or use of English can destroy meaning completely. I think that although the word "them" was used, what was intended was "themselves".

Well spotted; I never noticed that!