MSE News: University fees could rocket after funding review

The_One_Who

Stryder wrote: »

I am glad we have people such as you to choose who has academic ability and who is worthy of a higher education

Some people may have ambition and drive, and although massive potential, may struggle in the college/school environment. Thankfully these will not be allowed in under your plans - how dare they demand equality to those gifted with academic skills and probably, better quality schooling



YEY you make us all proud to be British!

I am well aware that not everyone performs as well as they can whilst at school, but university is an institution of higher education so grades and previous academic performance do have to play a part in an application. If the person can get themselves some alternative qualifications or even a lot of relevant experience, there is nothing stopping them from going to university. And there is nothing stopping anyone from going to university further down the line, rather than straight out of school.

sarahs999

irishwench69 wrote: »

Hmmmm, that's funny, I thought it would be those actually making a practical contribution to this country....

Too many "thinkers" by the way of courses like PPE that have led to a lot of this mess - better to have politicians who've actually had a career and a life rather than career politicians or "thinkers"

(Do you not think practical courses like engineering or science involve some thinking along the way by the way?! There's more to things than pondering the meaning of life.....)

IW x

You seem quite angry. I'm not sure why. I haven't attacked science or engineering or anything else.

What I'm trying to make you see is that if we push our educational choices towards a system where the arts and humanities are poor choices at universities because the burden of paying them off will hang around the student's neck for the rest of his/her life, we will have devalued our educational system and created a mere conveyor belt of degrees. Education is about much, much more than pieces of paper that let you get a job. And I'm not saying that these students won't get a job, but that the types of job that these degrees typically lead to are not the high-paying ones.

Taiko

I like that people on this thread are blaming the coalition government, especially as no fee increases have yet been agreed.

You do realise it was Labour who ordered the Browne report, right?

MrEmptyMoneyBag

The problem is that nearly every well paid, good career progression job needs a degree to apply. If the job market was open to less educated people, then less people would need to go to university.


They should cut the "weak" courses that don't teach anything worthwhile for the job market, such as, media, general studies, surfing etc.
Charging students up to £12k is a poor idea as it would certainly lead to fewer UK/EU Students going to university in the UK. However other foreign students are already paying this sort of figure, so this number perhaps may increase if the cost remains the same for them.


Basically this country and every other country in the world are slowly turning to sh*t.

Stryder

Taiko wrote: »

I like that people on this thread are blaming the coalition government, especially as no fee increases have yet been agreed.

You do realise it was Labour who ordered the Browne report, right?

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


does not really matter who ordered.... its who implements it that deserves to be hung drawn and quartered. And I voted Clegg before I realised he was really a 3-faced traiterous, sniving smug apologist of the lowest kind, hell bent to destroy the liberal democrats and create a 2 party state see sawing between right and left.



The One Who>> Sorry to say you do not really grasp the situation. you have to look at the aspirations of those who struggle at school and keep getting knocked down. Most will not be going to university at 25 or 35. Personally I hate the dilution of the academic system. However, it is immoral to bar people to a further (not higher) education and they should,where there abilities allow (they do need some grades... well except for Derby maybe) be allowed to make there own decision.

The_One_Who

Stryder wrote: »

The One Who>> Sorry to say you do not really grasp the situation. you have to look at the aspirations of those who struggle at school and keep getting knocked down. Most will not be going to university at 25 or 35. Personally I hate the dilution of the academic system. However, it is immoral to bar people to a further (not higher) education and they should,where there abilities allow (they do need some grades... well except for Derby maybe) be allowed to make there own decision.

I'm unsure what it is I'm not grasping. As far as I am aware, there is little stopping people going to college to get a further education, at least that is how it appears to be with the college in my town.

We need to start acknowledging that education costs money, a lot more money than people pay in course and tuition fees. This money needs to come from somewhere.

pimento

Another thing which could be considered is making a degree course two years instead of three. My son's politics course involves about 9 hours of lectures a week. They could squeeze that into two years easily, I'd have thought.

The_One_Who

pimento wrote: »

Another thing which could be considered is making a degree course two years instead of three. My son's politics course involves about 9 hours of lectures a week. They could squeeze that into two years easily, I'd have thought.

That would really require two sets of staff, one mainly for research and one mainly for teaching. At the moment the long summer holidays are used by a lot of staff to get some of their own work done. Work that doesn't involve creating classes and all the paperwork that comes with it, preparing for lectures, teaching or marking work. University lecturing staff are already stretching themselves.

Also, I think that might even feed into employer's worries that new graduates are not work-ready. Students wouldn't have an opportunity to get work experience, do internships, go abroad for the summer, etc.

Rosie75

The process of studying for a degree is not just a question of sitting through x hours of lectures a week. There's a process of intellectual maturation involved that many students struggle to achieve even within three years. Increasingly students arrive at university lacking skills (eg. essay writing, critical thinking) that could have been taken for granted twenty years ago. The first year is now treated as a foundation year. In the US, Scotland and most continental universities, a degree programme lasts for four years. Two year degrees may be financially preferable, but they would be academically disasterous and make English degrees a laughing stock internationally.

Anyway, it looks as though the implementation of higher fees is a foregone conclusion. The newspapers are reporting a 79% (£4.2bn) cut to the teaching grant that universities are allocated by the government, and a £1bn to the research budget. The tories are clearly not waiting around to discuss Browne's review before setting the wheels in motion.

ilovemydebts

Rosie75 wrote: »

Anyway, it looks as though the implementation of higher fees is a foregone conclusion. The newspapers are reporting a 79% (£4.2bn) cut to the teaching grant that universities are allocated by the government, and a £1bn to the research budget. The tories are clearly not waiting around to discuss Browne's review before setting the wheels in motion.

And how long did labour wait after the Dearing report? Same day if memory serves!