Student Loan 2015 Discussion

kayr_2

MrsAverage wrote: »

I am hoping that my questions will be answered in the much vaunted White Paper and to have the opportunity to contribute to the 'consultation'. Does anyone have any news on when this is to be published?

My MP has promised to give me details of how to contribute to the consultation process when it happens, so if she does, I'll put it on here. I'd heard "July" for the White Paper, but who knows.

setmefree2

MrsAverage wrote: »

I am hoping that my questions will be answered in the much vaunted White Paper and to have the opportunity to contribute to the 'consultation'. Does anyone have any news on when this is to be published?

No firm date yet, as far as I know - Soonish/ Jly sometime is what I have read.

2sides2everystory

What a complete b^gger's muddle this really is ...

GeneHunt_2

2sides2everystory wrote: »

What a complete b^gger's muddle this really is ...

Ain't that the truth

sharpz111

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Hi folks just to say that we welcome any feedback on "what's missing" - though only about practical financial things not the politics behind it (ie we will leave the impact on universities own funding for others).

It's only by publishing that we find out if there's anything we've missed - though I hope its pretty comprehensive as a start point compared to anything else that's been published.

So keep the questions coming - and we will research and add them in when we find out (e.g 2nd time round undergrads as above)

I posted about the plight of second time undergrads under the new system a week ago now and received this response. As far as I can see there hasn't been the slightest change to the guide.

In the meantime a leaked document from inter-departmental negotiations in Government has revealed the dire situation for funding all medicine degrees.

As a newbie I'm not allowed to post links so please visit the Save Graduate Medicine and Dentistry site at (w w w . s a v e g e m . c o . u k) and click Learn More to see the document.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department of Health are bickering about who will pay the extra £60 million a year to cover £9000 tuition fees for medical students, including first time undergraduates.

There is a real possibility that medical students will be expected to find around £5.6k up front from year 5 onwards, or years 2-4 of an accelerated graduate course (as well as £9k in the first year).

When the DoH were asked about this by the Sunday Times they said: "We aim to clarify the position". Personally, I think that sounds rather ominous. (See page 15 of last week's Sunday Times).

Has there been any progress by the MSE team on this issue?

Because this could be the glaring exception to "read my lips: no upfront fees". At the very least the 20% of medical students who are graduates, and the many others taking second degrees deserve at least a passing mention in the guide.

Onchman11

Can't see mention of how Grandparents can help students with their finance, as regards paying back the student loan. Can it be partly paid off after graduation to reduce the size of the loan?

setmefree2

It's not very specific (understatement) but this article in the Guardian sort of suggests that the Labour Party might consider revising student loans.

Labour will be looking for issues where the financial flows take place over decades rather than years to develop this approach.
How could it, for example, revise student loans, social care insurance and pension provision, with a view to ensuring that contributions go rewarded?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2011/jun/22/labour-policy-review-welfare

Dustykitten

Martin is answering questions on student loans on twitter this afternoon between 4 and 4:15pm

melancholly

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=416586&c=1

more pressure about cuts to graduate medicine. i hadn't realised that they already accounted for 10% of medical students..... perhaps the thinking is that if they make sufficient cuts to the NHS, we won't need so many more doctors?! being flippant aside, i'd hope that training doctors is one thing that we need to protect. it's a hell of a lot more useful than any degree i did! the graduate entry scheme seems to have been very successful in opening access to medicine - one of things the new funding schemes are meant to be encouraging (although clearly the high fees are doing quite the opposite across HE as a whole, but never mind!).

anyway, still waiting for that white paper..... you'd hope that by now they'd have made up their minds. even if this was a shoddily put together plan for the commons vote, they've had enough time to do some sums and work it out in the last 6 months......

atypical

Appears the fee rise is going to judicial review on the basis that discrimination laws weren't considered:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13907124

Found some more specifics here:

The legal challenge is being brought on two grounds, firstly that the increase breaches Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, in particular that it discriminates against students from poorer social origin and ethnic minorities.

The second is that the government has failed to give “due regard” to promoting equality of opportunity as is required under the country’s Race Relations, Sex Discrimination and Disability Discrimination Acts.