Student Loans 2012

setmefree2

Lokolo wrote: »

If a student got a partime job, and a summer job, there would be no need for any parent to ever contribute to anything.

So if your parent/s is poor you don't have to take a job because you get £6k in loans and grants.

BUT if your parent/s earns a reasonable wage and you only get £3k in loans you should take a job?

How's that fair?

setmefree2

Anyway, back to how much the tuition fees for 2012 might actually be. A new development.

Offa may get legal teeth if too many set £9,000 fees, say Willetts and Cable

10 February 2011
By John Gill


The government has threatened to legislate to allow it to intervene in the undergraduate tuition fee levels set by individual universities if too many rush to charge close to £9,000.

In a letter to the Director of Fair Access today, David Willetts, the universities minister, and Vince Cable, the business secretary, reassert that fees at the upper end of the new threshold should apply only in “exceptional circumstances”.
“It is, of course, not within your legal powers to impose any quota for how many institutions charge what level of graduate contribution, and that is consistent with our policy of an autonomous higher education sector, where institutions take their own decisions,” the ministers write to Sir Martin Harris.
“But if the sector as a whole appeared to be clustering their charges at the upper end of what is legally possible, and thereby increasing the pressure on public funds, we will have to reconsider what powers are available, including changes to legislation, to ensure there is differentiation in charges.”
The letter adds that the government “intends to keep this under very close review” in 2012-13, the first year of the new fees regime.
The letter to Sir Martin sets out details on access agreements that universities seeking to charge more than £6,000 in annual tuition fees to home and European Union students will have to agree with the Office for Fair Access (Offa).

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=415163&c=1

The_One_Who

setmefree2 wrote: »

So if your parent is poor you don't have to take a job because you get £6k in loans and grants.

BUT if your parent earns a reasonable wage and you only get £3k in loans you should take a job?

How's that fair?

It's not, but then neither is the fact that youths from socially deprived areas tend to be going to very poor schools, have fewer 'life-enriching experiences' (school trips, days out, holidays, etc), and will be doing well to be going to university in the first place.

liney

setmefree2 wrote: »

So if your parent/s is poor you don't have to take a job because you get £6k in loans and grants.

BUT if your parent/s earns a reasonable wage and you only get £3k in loans you should take a job?

How's that fair?

They will be means tested for the rest of their lives with income tax, benefits if they apply, and eventually pension credits and nursing home fees. Real life generally isn't very fair.

Lokolo

setmefree2 wrote: »

So if your parent/s is poor you don't have to take a job because you get £6k in loans and grants.

BUT if your parent/s earns a reasonable wage and you only get £3k in loans you should take a job?

How's that fair?

As my mum always says to me, life's not fair

setmefree2

Lokolo wrote: »

As my mum always says to me, life's not fair

I don't think that was my point but oh well I give up.....

and

Indeed, so why's everyone jumping up and down on this thread then?

Lokolo

setmefree2 wrote: »

I don't think that was my point but oh well I give up.....

I know, it's not fair, but it doesn't mean that someone who doesn't get extra loan or grant needs anything from their parents. They don't need it, but it just helps.

setmefree2

Ministers threaten to curb university fee risesBy Chris Cook, Education Correspondent
Published: February 10 2011 14:12 | Last updated: February 10 2011 14:12

Ministers have threatened to seek powers to control university fees if too many institutions attempt to charge too high a price. The warning is contained in an open letter from Vince Cable, business secretary, and David Willetts, the universities minister, to Offa, the university admissions watchdog.
In 2012-13, the cap on tuition fees, now £3,290, will rise to £9,000. The letter says that if too many institutions cluster near that top price boundary, ministers will “reconsider what powers are available, including changes to legislation, to ensure that there is differentiation in charges”.

Ministers fear that if many institutions raise prices too far, the cost to the taxpayer will be higher than originally budgeted because of higher student loan costs.
This would, in the short term, require cuts to other parts of the higher education sector’s publicly-funded budget to keep the business department within its spending limits.
Mr Willetts told the Financial Times that the interventions, which the letter states could be introduced in time for 2012-13, might not take the form of blunt price control regulation. The government might, instead, take steps to accelerate temporarily the injection of competition into the sector.
The letter also discusses the “access agreements” that institutions wanting permission to charge more than £6,000 per annum will need to have approved by Offa. These will need to demonstrate how the university will “promote access by under-represented groups and the progress they intend to make”.
The promise of toughened access conditions is crucial to retaining the support of many Liberal Democrat MPs, who had campaigned at the general election against tuition fees. The letter states that the government wants “to make Britain a more open and meritocratic society, in which talent is not wasted.”
One indicator for Offa to consider is the share of students admitted from state schools. In 2008-09, 54.7 per cent and 59.3 per cent of students at Oxford and Cambridge were from the state sector. The university average is 88.5 per cent.
Tough rules to widen participation by deprived groups and reduce drop-out rates, will also help to keep university fees down.
Conditions on drop-out rates will prevent many less prestigious universiites from raising fees at will. At the University of Bolton, 99.8 per cent of students attended state schools but 29.9 per cent of its students drop out without qualifications.
The letter also makes mention of using so-called “contextual data” when selecting applicants. This gives official sanction and a name to the decades-old practice of using information other than unadjusted exam results - such as school performance, interviews and personal statements - in order to identify high-potential candidates.
Universities that do not satisfy Offa of their seriousness will not be permitted to charge more than £6,000.
Gareth Thomas, shadow universities minister, said: “Vince Cable and David Willetts’ belief that access agreements can soften the impact of £9,000 tuition fee rates when Offa has no new powers and only four members of staff to cover 130 universities is verging on self delusional.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/48af3d96-3504-11e0-9810-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1DTmSaG00

Lokolo

Indeed there was an article on the BBC yesterday about Oxford and Cambridge claiming that they will be charging £9k for all their courses. But people have said this won't happen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12409428

Heres one from today.

setmefree2

Lokolo wrote: »

I know, it's not fair, but it doesn't mean that someone who doesn't get extra loan or grant needs anything from their parents. They don't need it, but it just helps.

I really do give up!!!

I get it. You - don't want my son to get any money, even if he has nothing to live on. Even though you had tens of thousands of pounds from your grandparents. Fine. I understand. Let us just leave it there? Please?