MSE News: Wonga branded 'morally offensive' for targeting students

anon_ymous

digitaltoast wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/aug/01/vocational-skills-vs-university

You have a point when it comes to not *needing* university for certain types of work ie: my intended work, but for me I get the degree for £25 less than if I were to pay for one qualification from the course and a further £2.5K just for an exam when for university students it costs around £150

So in that sense, university is cheaper (currently) than just paying to study for the qualifications

There are also different "kinds" of vocational work ie: the professions - law, medicine, engineering and IT require quite a bit of vocational training

but trades like building etc... it's not quite as "profitable" or worthwhile to go to university because they do involve more of needing to know clients who then usually spread your business through word of mouth

VfM4meplse

waqasahmed wrote: »

Im not saying our university is the best of the best but for certain courses it can be. ie: like Oxbridge are probably the best of the best for subjects like law or medicine etc..

The argument is not about the course, it's about the intellectual ability.

Everything is relative and I doubt we will ever be on the same spectrum, let alone opposite ends. My comments relate to the bizarre assumption that going onto higher education denotes implicit intelligence. There are UK-born "graduates" from these institutions that have a poorer command of English than non-nationals. As for their capacity to engage the brain independently, you can forget it. It's far better that individuals find a way of maximising their potential independently, rather than relying on poor quality HEIs.

Yogibear

I notice they sponsor Heart of Midlothian splashed across their shirts targeting the fans if your over 18 you know what you are doing,I noticed when I was wandering through a shopping centre in a poor area Bright-House had a huge shop another shower of legalised thieving:mad:

Derivative

VfM4meplse wrote: »

My comments relate to the bizarre assumption that going onto higher education denotes implicit intelligence.

You have a fair point I suppose - when I think 'student', I tend to think of someone studying Maths at a red brick, which doesn't represent the average very well.

moonklash

This made very interesting reading, especially when Wonga blamed SEO for the content they had on the site.

"In fact, the main purpose of the content was search engine optimisation, or ‘SEO,’ which is a common practice for any internet business that wants to appear in searches for relevant subjects. In our case, all things relating to loans and credit."

SEO is my field, it's what I do Monday to Friday. The content on their page (which you can see mirrored here on the Way Back Machine) was targeting students, despite what they claim. I wrote a blog about this whole debate for work and you can see the conclusions here (note I'm not a spammer, I'm a genuine user here and I've added the link in case anyone is interested in Wonga's excuses but please remove if you feel it's inappropriate).

Whether or not Wonga should be targeting students, I would say from the content that was found on the previous version of the page that this is what they were doing. SEO could be the motivation for putting the content as up there, that *is* possible, however in the end it's the final message that matters, not the reasoning behind it, so blaming SEO was a bit cheeky.

Derivative

waqasahmed wrote: »

How would you like it if someone said to you that your work was substandard when you did a lot to get there, and then consider that say you are working for say the best accounting firm in the country and someone calls that substandard.

Your opinion on the standard of your own institution is tainted.

I think my University is the best in the world. That's why I applied there. I also happen to think Physics is an order of magnitude more difficult than any other subject, and that my trouser snake is four times as big as any living man's. I am fully confident that I'll be paying additional rate tax before I even graduate, and that a queue of girls will form behind me as prospective applicants for marriage.

Other people's opinion may differ.

At the end of the day, which University is 'best' for this or that is largely irrelevant, since hardly anyone works in the same field as their undergraduate degree anyway. An employer is going to look at "Cambridge" or "Leeds Met", not spend hours on Google trying to work out the relative merits of each institution as if they're applying themselves.

setmefree2

One of the first things I see when I log on to MSE these days is this:-

BEST EVER CREDIT CARD!

overlaid on this picture


Pot Calling????

digitaltoast

setmefree2 wrote: »

Pot Calling????

No. Absolutely not. In any way. Completely unrelated.

"Best Ever Credit Card" refers to an MSE endorsed card which has:

It's 18 mths 0% on spending | Cheap spending abroad | 0.5% cashback | AND 17mths 0% on shifted debt

If you can tell me how 18 months interest free credit on a purchase relates to a discussion about a 4000%+ cash loan then aimed at the stupid, gullible and desperate, then please, do explain.

redpete

MsDaisy wrote: »

Wonga APR 4214%

Student loan APR 1.5%

I know which company I'd rather my DS had a loan with

The MSE article that made the comparison also says "(though an APR is not the best way to measure a payday loan as you do not borrow the money annually)" yet still makes the comparison which is as misleading as Wonga's advertising.

setmefree2

setmefree2 wrote: »

One of the first things I see when I log on to MSE these days is this:-

BEST EVER CREDIT CARD!

overlaid on this picture


Pot Calling????

digitaltoast wrote: »

No. Absolutely not. In any way. Completely unrelated.

"Best Ever Credit Card" refers to an MSE endorsed card which has:


If you can tell me how 18 months interest free credit on a purchase relates to a discussion about a 4000%+ cash loan then aimed at the stupid, gullible and desperate, then please, do explain.

It's the thin edge of the wedge. It's aimed at young people and its aim is to make debt look glamorous and fun. (It's also how MSE makes its money ).

Well it offends me anyhows; I can't speak for anyone else.