Student Finance In Scotland

emilyjayne_3

Someone mentioned that Edinburgh Uni is competitive to get into, I applied for the 5 main Scottish Uni's (apart from St Andrews) - Glasgow, Strathclyde, Edinburgh, Stirling and Cally. I got unconditionals for both Edinburgh and Cally, as their entrance requirements for my course (History and Politics) were lower grades than the others. I understand they may be ranked #40, but as far as I was aware they are not one of the most prestigious Scottish Uni's? Apologies if I am incorrect, but the general opinion I got when applying for Uni was that Glasgow, Strathclyde and St Andrew's were the best, nobody ever bigged up Edinburgh (Possibly cause I live closer to Glasgow, not sure).
Anyway, the reason I am posting, is that even though you wouldn't get free tuition without living here for 3 years, our fees are still considerably lower than English Uni's. I think its around £1800/year for 2011, and its only higher for medicine. So basically you'd still have to pay, just alot less !

arsenalbarnie

Fiddlestick wrote: »

It's not unfair at all. It's a spending decision made by central government and other things have to suffer to afford it.

If anyone in England doesn't like it then they should petition their government representatives to change their system.


No offence, but Edinburgh is one of the hottest housing markets in the UK and prices were rising long after the rest of the UK had slowed down.

If you could afford such a "fantastic house" here then why can you not afford the University fees?

That doesn't really add up.

I could still afford a fantastic house in Edinburgh I have looked. I can afford the tuition fees, yes. But do you see anywhere else the govt will increase anything by anywhere near as much as tuition fees, I would love to be enlightened. I could complain to my MP and I probably will. I thought I lived in a United Kingdom, it just doesn't seem very united on certain matters. I suppose it never will. Please people never trust the government. They have come up with this hair brained idea of offering student loans calculating them on universities charging £7500 pa, I have only seen one uni so far announcing fees less than the maximum £9000. Everything has yet to be finalised and I fear our children are going to suffer. I have experience of two of my children currently studying at a 'red brick' university. One could have studied accountancy locally with an accountancy firm, but chose the degree route, the other is studying philosophy. Well, the former with fees at £9000 would probably not have bothered with uni, and the latter the same and studied it with the OU, their words not mine. The value for money they are getting for being there 20 weeks of the year is not value for money in their eyes and that is at current fee levels. I just feel for teenagers and feel very lucky that I grew up when I did. My husband got a full grant for his degree, and I, did nursing and midwifery, worked bl**dy hard but also got paid for it.

jennifernil

This house is quite nice...............

http://www.espc.com/buying/298556.html

fixed price too.

Prefer my own kitchen though, that one is a bit odd!

Serenity

GothicStirling wrote: »

I'm going to dispute that. My experience with university admissions is that A-levels are preferred over Highers.

My experience of teaching is that students who have taken A-levels do better at university level too. Maybe that has something to do with English students being awarded higher maintainance than SAAS do, and don't need to work so many hours.

"The One Who" said highers are slightly harder/worth more than AS levels, not A levels. When I applied highers were worth more on the ucas tarrif than AS levels and Advanced highers were worth more than A levels. Of course A levels are worth more than highers, they are a year ahead.
Unfortunately, as has been said, many Scottish schools don't offer any/many Advanced highers (I did all 3 my school offered, all pretty much self taught, and the nearest school that offered any more would have been 100 miles away). ETA: Actually you could do Advanced Higher Art self taught too but most people just chose to do a portfolio instead (I'm not an artist so forgot about that).

ETA (again): Maybe English students do better because they have 6th form college and so are more used to a lecture, then learn more yourself structure; whereas Scottish students go straight from basically classroom teaching to the lecture/tutorial style of teaching? I don't know though, do all English students go to 6th form college or do some/most still do them at school?

Anyway this is way off topic the OP, but she has her answer.

On a personal note I would rather pay for education as if the SNP get in again they aren't going to be able to magic up enough money to keep Scottish universities on a parity with the English ones.

arsenalbarnie

ETA (again): Maybe English students do better because they have 6th form college and so are more used to a lecture, then learn more yourself structure; whereas Scottish students go straight from basically classroom teaching to the lecture/tutorial style of teaching? I don't know though, do all English students go to 6th form college or do some/most still do them at school?

Anyway this is way off topic the OP, but she has her answer.

On a personal note I would rather pay for education as if the SNP get in again they aren't going to be able to magic up enough money to keep Scottish universities on a parity with the English ones.[/QUOTE]

Where I live most stay on at school 6th form. Can't speak for other parts of the country. I suppose it depends on how big the school is. I know that yr 9 and under will have to stay in full time education until 17. They are building a big college 5 miles away to be linked with local schools to offer more vocational courses.

GothicStirling

jennifernil wrote: »

This house is quite nice...............

http://www.espc.com/buying/298556.html

fixed price too.

Prefer my own kitchen though, that one is a bit odd!

Yes, let me just check my back pocket for the 1.3 million asking price!

GothicStirling

arsenalbarnie wrote: »

ETA (again): Where I live most stay on at school 6th form. Can't speak for other parts of the country. I suppose it depends on how big the school is. I know that yr 9 and under will have to stay in full time education until 17. They are building a big college 5 miles away to be linked with local schools to offer more vocational courses.

I went to a sixth-form college in Northumberland, that was on the school campus. Though I wish now I had gone to college in Newcastle.

The_One_Who

arsenalbarnie wrote: »

I thought I lived in a United Kingdom, it just doesn't seem very united on certain matters. I suppose it never will.

Scotland has always had a separate education system, as it has always had a separate health system and some aspects of law. The UK has never been united on those three matters.

jennifernil wrote: »

This house is quite nice...............

http://www.espc.com/buying/298556.html

fixed price too.

Prefer my own kitchen though, that one is a bit odd!

So you are willing to uproot your family and spend over a million pounds all to get four years of free higher education that may not be free for very much longer?

Also, I'm not sure if you are aware of what is going on in Scotland's universities at the moment? It's not a great time for them.

AnnBar

Have you considered how disruptive it will be to your childrens education to move from GCSEs to standard grades or from A levels to highers. They are very different. Your son who goes to univesity in 3 years may find that he can't do some subjects that he is already studying for.

GothicStirling

The_One_Who wrote: »

Also, I'm not sure if you are aware of what is going on in Scotland's universities at the moment? It's not a great time for them.

Too true, my Uni is up in arms because they need to let go of 17 staff from one department.

Just what I need when I'm three weeks away from handing in my dissertation.