Student Loan 2015 Discussion

atypical

This blog might interest people:
http://simple-living-in-suffolk.co.uk/2012/01/students-are-increasingly-studying-subjects-with-little-employer-demand-for-some-bizarre-reason/

"What puzzles me about what university students are increasingly studying is that it seems to be for specific things that offer little potential for employment.

What are people really getting into? Nutrition, Journalism, Architecture, Drama, Philosophy, Politics, Marketing.

What are people really getting out of? Production and Manufacturing, American Studies, Agriculture, Sociology, Ophthalmics, French, Computer studies, Social Policy, Software Engineering. Science and Engineering of nearly all sorts is in retreat."

Taiko

Merel wrote: »

I'm not sure if I entirely agree. Under new lending rules, banks are now required to include "affordability" as part of the assessment of whether they will give you a mortgage or not. If you are earning over £21K, and let's face it, when you are thinking of buying a house, then you are likely to be, then the banks will take the amount you are paying back into account when deciding how much they will lend.
One less reason to take out a student loan?

So what's the change from the old system? Affordability was always looked at before, so deductions for SL's were obviously there for the net income calculation.

If anything, the new system is likely to make it easier to afford the repayments. After all, that's £540 per annum less deductions than the old system.

Lokolo

atypical wrote: »

This blog might interest people:
http://simple-living-in-suffolk.co.uk/2012/01/students-are-increasingly-studying-subjects-with-little-employer-demand-for-some-bizarre-reason/

"What puzzles me about what university students are increasingly studying is that it seems to be for specific things that offer little potential for employment.

What are people really getting into? Nutrition, Journalism, Architecture, Drama, Philosophy, Politics, Marketing.

What are people really getting out of? Production and Manufacturing, American Studies, Agriculture, Sociology, Ophthalmics, French, Computer studies, Social Policy, Software Engineering. Science and Engineering of nearly all sorts is in retreat."

This bit made me laugh.

and the sort of thing you needed Computer Studies and Software Engineering for are going to be done in India and eventually Africa.

My course has a very good employment rate and it's very specific! Yes there is a lot of outsourcing nowadays but what company is going to entirely rely on a whole department being outsourced to a foreign country? I doubt any! Unless you move the whole company.....

Place like IBM, Microsoft and the biguns aren't going to suddenly go over the India and "Africa", wouldn't mind seeing how he's made up this assumption.

tyllwyd

Lokolo wrote: »

This bit made me laugh.

My course has a very good employment rate and it's very specific! Yes there is a lot of outsourcing nowadays but what company is going to entirely rely on a whole department being outsourced to a foreign country? I doubt any! Unless you move the whole company.....

Place like IBM, Microsoft and the biguns aren't going to suddenly go over the India and "Africa", wouldn't mind seeing how he's made up this assumption.

My OH works in software engineering in a multi-national company, and he is seeing more and more work outsourced to India, with redundancies in the UK. He is worried that new graduates are not being recruited to his department, and the way it is going it is entirely possible that all the actual software engineering that his department currently does could be handled in India within the next 10/20 years.

katykitten

my son applied several months ago, the course he wants to do is run by a private college and starts in may, every time we speak to SFE we get a different response - his fees are just over 9k and we are being told he will only get 3.5k (ish) which we cant understand as they have yet to receive my proof of single status. also he is not being given a grant of any sort which is different from last time (he did a year at nottingham and hated it so dropped out) - i find the whole system very confusing and am sick of dealing with people who dont seem to know what they are doing. one person told us (and was adamant) that he had to apply again as his 10-11 application was now invalid and they would delete it from the system so he could re-apply ( he has a disability so applying takes a long time) - when we next went onto the system it hadnt been deleted and had been re-instated for 11-12 despite them saying that there was no way this could be done and refering to a supervisor as well, confusing and frustrating to say the least with nowhere to go as SFE keep giving us the runaround - i give up!

gadgetmind

tyllwyd wrote: »

it is going it is entirely possible that all the actual software engineering that his department currently does could be handled in India within the next 10/20 years.

We are *really* struggling to recruit good software engineers in the UK. Our minimum grad salary is now £26k, and this will be increasing to £28k in fy 2012. Spain, Greece and Italy are bridging the gap as we're getting good applications from there, but it's still not enough.

As a company, we have development centres in China and India, but we'd rather build our UK base. If UK unis and grads would wake up to the opportunities, we'd be VERY happy.

Lokolo

gadgetmind wrote: »

We are *really* struggling to recruit good software engineers in the UK. Our minimum grad salary is now £26k, and this will be increasing to £28k in fy 2012. Spain, Greece and Italy are bridging the gap as we're getting good applications from there, but it's still not enough.

As a company, we have development centres in China and India, but we'd rather build our UK base. If UK unis and grads would wake up to the opportunities, we'd be VERY happy.

Yep that's the same with my IT department, although they are looking for general IT graduates they have an idea of what area they want the grads to go in.

In my IT department they have development teams and each of them have access to resources in India, but these are specifically developers only, whereas the ones in the UK have business skills as well.

The "all development going to India" thing has been going on for years, and yes it has partly gone over there, but there's no chance of it fully going there and with the growth of IT I cannot see there being a lack of jobs for developers.

Taiko

katykitten wrote: »

my son applied several months ago, the course he wants to do is run by a private college and starts in may, every time we speak to SFE we get a different response - his fees are just over 9k and we are being told he will only get 3.5k (ish) which we cant understand as they have yet to receive my proof of single status. also he is not being given a grant of any sort which is different from last time (he did a year at nottingham and hated it so dropped out) - i find the whole system very confusing and am sick of dealing with people who dont seem to know what they are doing. one person told us (and was adamant) that he had to apply again as his 10-11 application was now invalid and they would delete it from the system so he could re-apply ( he has a disability so applying takes a long time) - when we next went onto the system it hadnt been deleted and had been re-instated for 11-12 despite them saying that there was no way this could be done and refering to a supervisor as well, confusing and frustrating to say the least with nowhere to go as SFE keep giving us the runaround - i give up!

What's the course title and the name of the institute he will be studying at? Having that information will enable us to give you better advice.

tyllwyd

katykitten wrote: »

my son applied several months ago, the course he wants to do is run by a private college and starts in may, every time we speak to SFE we get a different response - his fees are just over 9k and we are being told he will only get 3.5k (ish) ... one person told us (and was adamant) that he had to apply again as his 10-11 application was now invalid and they would delete it from the system so he could re-apply ( he has a disability so applying takes a long time) - when we next went onto the system it hadnt been deleted and had been re-instated for 11-12 ...

I wondered if the confusion over the year might be the reason for the low loan amount for fees - if it down on the system as a 2010 application, do you think it is based on the 2010 fees rather than 2012?

alicat236

I apologize if this question has been answered elsewhere, but I haven't been able to get a clear answer yet, not even from the Student Loans Company or the University at which I wish to study.

I am hoping to begin a PGCE in September 2012 and would therefore be taking a 2012 loan to cover my £9,000 tuition fees.
I finished my BA in 2004 on an old style student loan, this loan has not yet been repaid.

With teaching salaries close to the repayment threshold for 2012 loans and well above the pre-2012 threshold, will I end up repaying both loans at once?

This would seem unlikely as it would result in generation of impoverished young teachers. But in that case, will the pre or post 2012 loan be repaid first? The order of repayment does make a big difference to the amount of pay you'll lose in the first few years and overall amount paid.

Has anyone been able to find an official answer? I have my PGCE interview next Thursday so it is getting to the point where I need to know facts rather than conjecture as I cannot afford to do a PGCE if they expect me to repay both loans at once come 2013.

Thank you!