Student Finance In Scotland

arsenalbarnie

The_One_Who wrote: »

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.



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.

No I won't be after all the helpful information people on here have given me. Don't get me wrong Scotland is a lovely country, but I expect I will be paying the tuition fees in England I expect as I am not going to let my kids get into debt with a government I can't trust. Will have to do some serious moneysaving and investing.Two lots of university educations to pay for and another three to look forward to.:eek:

arsenalbarnie

AnnBar wrote: »

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.

Thanks for the advice but no I won't be after all I have read on here. I was merely looking for ways to save money, nothing is ever easy is it.

GothicStirling

emilyjayne wrote: »

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 !

Edinburgh doesn't have to 'big' themselves up. It is populated by 'Yahs' though [privately educated, posh kids from southern England.]

It depends on the course really. Some courses at Aberdeen are considered superior than Edinburgh or Glasgow. I've never really heard anything about Strathclyde - definitely heard about Cally though . . .

jennifernil

GothicStirling wrote: »

I've never really heard anything about Strathclyde - definitely heard about Cally though . . .

Strathclyde is well regarded in many fields theses days, but Calley...........hmmm!

jennifernil

GothicStirling wrote: »

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.

My daughter is similarly affected, looks like her chances of staying on as a Lecturer/Research Associate (is that what you call it?) are quite slim.

GothicStirling

I know one of my department's lecturers split his time between Stirling and Strathclyde.

The situation is a PR nightmare. I've decided to do my MA at Oxford Brookes instead of Stirling, and my sister looks like she is going to choose Nottingham, instead of Aberdeen for her MA.

GlasweJen

The cally fur a swally? Bus station uni as it's known in the east end of Glasgow.

I went to Napier, no normal person from Glasgow actually gets into Edinburgh - that's reserved for locals, english kids and people who went to private school.

donquine

I was resident in Scotland in my youth, yet chose to study in England.

I did Advanced Highers, which got me offers for some good English universities and some good Scottish ones. The difference was, with the Scottish universities, I was told I could go straight into second year. It was my choice.

I always felt that if I had gone into first year in Scotland, having already done my Advanced Highers, I would have been bored academically. And if I had gone into second year, I would have struggled to make friends as close groups would have already been formed before I got there. The same quandry will face any English student looking to move up north as their A Levels will put them in the same position I was with my Advanced Highers. I don't think moving to Scotland to cut tuition fees is necessarily a smart idea.

First year of university in Scotland is a catch up year - Scottish pupils who get As and Bs at Higher level tend to get an unconditional offer for at least one university in Scotland. A lot of them then don't bother to study for their Advanced Highers because it makes no impact on whether they get to go to university or not. (No one ever tells them that when they look for graduate jobs, crappy Advanced Highers will come back to bite them.)

I may have ended up with a good degree from a good English university, but if I had my time again, I wouldn't bother. I did a languages degree, technically an arts degree, so I had very little contact time. I could easily have not gone to university, bought/borrowed the same books and ended up learning the same amount of information. The only useful part of my degree was the year abroad, which I organised myself without any help from the university anyway (although I did still have to pay the university tuition fees). Wouldn't have achieved the same pathetic piece of paper (from meeting other graduates it transpires that the better the university you attend, the duller your degree certificate looks), but I would have incurred a tiny fraction of the cost.

My degree simply wasn't value for money. As student, I remember feeling gleeful to have so few lectures to attend, but now older, wiser and harder, I do wonder what I was paying for.

As for the graduate job I do now, I could have taken an alternative route after my Advanced Highers and been in the same position right now without going to university.

My generation were sold the lie that university was essential for getting a good job. Yes, we all got good jobs because we just missed the recession, but those who studied after us weren't as lucky. I feel incredibly sorry for them - many are stacking shelves not because they didn't work hard at university, volunteer, hold down a part time job - because there aren't endless graduate jobs out there anymore. Timing went against them.

University is a serious financial undertaking - I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a plan for what they want to do afterwards. An engineering degree for example, will never ever be a waste of money - but an arts degree like mine? With tuition fees at £9,000 per annum, I simply couldn't recommend it anymore.

GothicStirling

donquine wrote: »

My generation were sold the lie that university was essential for getting a good job. Yes, we all got good jobs because we just missed the recession, but those who studied after us weren't as lucky. I feel incredibly sorry for them - many are stacking shelves not because they didn't work hard at university, volunteer, hold down a part time job - because there aren't endless graduate jobs out there anymore. Timing went against them.

University is a serious financial undertaking - I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a plan for what they want to do afterwards. An engineering degree for example, will never ever be a waste of money - but an arts degree like mine? With tuition fees at £9,000 per annum, I simply couldn't recommend it anymore.

Going to disagree. I still have three weeks until my dissertation is due, and I start my graduate job on Friday. I have [will have] an arts degree - Scottish Literature. Was it luck? Not in the slightest. I worked my !!!! off for four years. I've been applying for Graduate Schemes since September, last summer I did a marketing internship, and volunteered for Oxfam.

As an employer, who would you hire?

The_One_Who

GothicStirling wrote: »

Going to disagree. I still have three weeks until my dissertation is due, and I start my graduate job on Friday. I have [will have] an arts degree - Scottish Literature. Was it luck? Not in the slightest. I worked my !!!! off for four years. I've been applying for Graduate Schemes since September, last summer I did a marketing internship, and volunteered for Oxfam.

As an employer, who would you hire?

Yes, but you don't know the CV of the other candidates. The chances are there will be several others who have done similar things to you, it just happens you won out. I'm not saying it's luck, it's just not as straightforward as it might seem.

donquine wrote:

University is a serious financial undertaking - I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a plan for what they want to do afterwards. An engineering degree for example, will never ever be a waste of money - but an arts degree like mine? With tuition fees at £9,000 per annum, I simply couldn't recommend it anymore.

Whilst a degree is not the golden ticket to a good job that it once was, it would be a mistake to think that they are useless. Degrees are now almost a pre-requisite for a lot of jobs.