MSE News - Tuition fees furore: what exactly are the plans?

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Who exactly will pay £9,000 a year fees and what more do we know about them? Our Q&A guide answers your questions ..."

Read the full story:
Tuition fees furore: what exactly are the plans?

georky

What is really missing, nearly everywhere and quite strangely! not a single politician has dared talking about it, is the status of tuition fees for graduate students wishing to study either medicine or dentistry. These are 4 year courses for those that already have a science related degree. At the moment students pay the tuition fees for the first year upfront and are eligible to apply for the NHS bursary to cover the tuition fees for the remaining three years. Students can also apply for loan to cover living expenses. So to sum it up, £3000 upfront tuition fee for the first year with the possibility of NHS paying the remaining £12000.

With the new fee regime, students might be asked to pay £9000 upfront for the first year with the possibility of being responsible for another £27000 for the second, third and fourth year as it is not clear whether NHS would continue its support for graduate entry into dentistry or medicine.

So the whole thing of no student would pay a penny upfront is a big lie in this case. But what is excruciatingly stressful is the lack of information about this issue.

Could anyone shed any light on this issue please?

Thank you very much.

The_One_Who

"The current system sees students paying back their loan at the same 9% rate but on income above £16,000 a year, with outstanding debt written off after 25 years."

It's above £15,000.

Also, this has not offered any new information, all of what is there has been around since the start of this. This thread will just re-ignite the debate about the fees.

Taiko

I have to say, it's a pretty !!!!poor article.

No new information is in there, and some parts of it are incorrect as it is. It's not really reasonable also to expect all the ins and outs to be made public yet. From experience, the previous sets of Student Support Regulations have taken anywhere from 8 months to a year to be published, and that's in cases where there's been pretty much no change! I imagine the full details will probably arrive in the Spring, given the vastness of the changes.

With regards to the medicine/dentistry issue, I've a feeling that will be down to the individual university. I don't see the government removing the ELQ clause, or the previous honours degree clause which is what prevents those students getting a fee loan for that year 1. That's an issue that will need to be addressed, but the rest is not important for the time being.

Sobraon

I'm looking forward to an extensive MSE article on attending university overseas (and studying in English) to minimise costs. To paraphrase John Gilmore's view of censorship on the Net being treated as damage which users will route around, then people who want to go to university will "route around" the high English university fees by studying somewhere else.

The ConDems have forgotten that the free movement of citizens is a fundamental right in the EU and while the UK government (and it seems also the Scottish, Welsh and NI assemblies) appears to have entrenched anti English racist policies in law this tactic is not open to other administrations.

So come on please MSE lets see a timely article on studying in English overseas. For example Maastricht university where fees seem to be £1400 per year with grants and loans from the Dutch Government :j.
Maastericht came 111 in last years QS world university rankings and the nearest English university was Liverpool 10 places lower at 121.

FATBALLZ

Sobraon wrote: »

I'm looking forward to an extensive MSE article on attending university overseas (and studying in English) to minimise costs. To paraphrase John Gilmore's view of censorship on the Net being treated as damage which users will route around, then people who want to go to university will "route around" the high English university fees by studying somewhere else.

The ConDems have forgotten that the free movement of citizens is a fundamental right in the EU and while the UK government (and it seems also the Scottish, Welsh and NI assemblies) appears to have entrenched anti English racist policies in law this tactic is not open to other administrations.

So come on please MSE lets see a timely article on studying in English overseas. For example Maastricht university where fees seem to be £1400 per year with grants and loans from the Dutch Government :j.
Maastericht came 111 in last years QS world university rankings and the nearest English university was Liverpool 10 places lower at 121.

Yeah I agree that would be good to see, it's starting to look far more attractive to study overseas where fees are reasonable rather than most of the decidedly unremarkable universities in England.

If I was going to university now I'd seriously be looking into it, so many advantages and hard to see any major drawbacks.

ehlo

For graduates earning between £21,000 and £41,000 interest will be calculated on a sliding scale from RPI to RPI plus 3% depending on their salary. The more they earn, the higher the interest. A graduate earning £31,000 would pay RPI plus 1.5% interest, for example.

Tuition fees remain the same for existing students, however will the new +3% interest apply on loans for students who have already started and so have another two years at university?

atypical

ehlo wrote: »

will the new +3% interest apply on loans for students who have already started and so have another two years at university?

No. The loan terms for existing students will remain unchanged, apart from the fact that the current £15,000 earnings threshold will be increased annually with inflation from April 2012.

davidgmmafan

We won't know for a long time how much is written off, my guess is a lot. A very lot :P

StressedOutSue

I have always brought up my children (19, 17 and 15) not to have debt - 'neither a lender nor a borrower be'. How can this government justify encouraging our young people to take on such huge, huge debt for the rest of their lives? Does anybody know of any loopholes to try to minimise the debt apart from studying abroad? If they must study abroad in order to avoid paying these huge fees, could this be in France? All help appreciated - my eldest daughter is currently at university, but the other two will be affected by this.

Oldernotwiser

StressedOutSue wrote: »

I have always brought up my children (19, 17 and 15) not to have debt - 'neither a lender nor a borrower be'. How can this government justify encouraging our young people to take on such huge, huge debt for the rest of their lives? Does anybody know of any loopholes to try to minimise the debt apart from studying abroad? If they must study abroad in order to avoid paying these huge fees, could this be in France? All help appreciated - my eldest daughter is currently at university, but the other two will be affected by this.

Were they never planning to take out mortgages either?