Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

zagubov

chewmylegoff wrote: »

To be fair whilst that was the articulated aim of the Blair govt, I think the current govt had made it pretty clear it doesn't want 50% of people going to university by ramping up fees by so much.

I'm under the impression that the government wants an indebted workforce educated at their own expense.
Ticks so many boxes.
Less expense to employers as we've paid for our own education. Debts mean we think twice about industrial action and sticking up for our rights.
Don't have to properly finance schools as tertiary education will make up the shortcomings of that particular area of underfunding.
We're at least in theory able to take our qualifications and move around the country to where the current jobs are, when our employers downsize and lay us off.
Pity our mortgages affect that plan like a full stop affects a sentence.

CKhalvashi

PasturesNew wrote: »

I guess I am too used to being cut off from mainstream England. Oh - and Travelodge rooms are UBER expensive. Yes, you can see some headline cheap adverts, but try to book a room in a place you want and on a date you want and it's likely to cost £70/night.

Trains ... dunno about them, they're slow and expensive, so I just checked: here to Bristol next Wednesday (a random date pick): 5 hours each way, it can't be done in one day unless you arrive and get straight on the return train. Cost with a 16-24 railcard is £55 return. So, all in, it'd cost a minimum of £100 to get up, get there, eat chips, stay overnight, come home. I guess people/kids have a lot more money than I do though.... they certainly all have a lot more stuff and as stuff comes from money that's therefore maybe the answer.

It’s not about having money Pastures, it’s about what you do with the money that you do have.

vivatifosi wrote: »

Well it's a great song. Can't remember the last time a Eurovision song was this successful in the UK though. Katrina and the Waves? I don't think Rybak was.

I’m not going into exact figures, as I don’t want my artists earnings splattered across an open forum, but as a company, we’ve taken just under £250k in the last 24 hours, from that song alone!

Most of it will be replacing our remaining six ’05/06/56’ plate vans, some of which have 500k+ miles on them!

CK

vivatifosi

zagubov wrote: »

I used to advise my students that if they miss a grade for Nottingham they'd be wasting their time phoning to negotiate- they never give an inch.

Interesting... What was your advice on other "top" universities?

PasturesNew

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Most people don't live in Cornwall though! Also if you book about 1 month in advance trains tend to be a lot cheaper.

I've stayed in travelodges, premier inns and ibises and stuff like that a lot and never paid £70 for the priviledge. I stayed in reading on a Saturday night a month ago, booked at 3 days notice and that was £29. If the travelodge is too expensive you can usually get a cheap room using laterooms.

I should appoint you my official "new address finder" then
So far I've found two bail hostels I can just about afford.... but they don't have parking or I'd have probably gone with that.

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

So far I've found two bail hostels I can just about afford.... but they don't have parking or I'd have probably gone with that.

I must have done my weekly supermarket shop near one of those today. It's the first time I've notice people walking round the supermarket wearing shorts, vest tops and those electronic ankle bracelet things.

chewmylegoff

zagubov wrote: »

I'm under the impression that the government wants an indebted workforce educated at their own expense.
Ticks so many boxes.
Less expense to employers as we've paid for our own education. Debts mean we think twice about industrial action and sticking up for our rights.
Don't have to properly finance schools as tertiary education will make up the shortcomings of that particular areaof undrfunding.
Wee're atleast in theory able to take our qualifictaions and move around the country to where the current jobs are, when our employers downsize and lay us off.
Pity our mortgages affect that plan like a full stop affects a sentence.

I personally think there should be a charge for higher education- when I was there, there were so many wasters there it wasn't funny. No one is helped by a system that enables people to just have a free party for three years whilst scraping a 2.2 learning nothing useful.

However, the govt should has really missed an opportunity to make the system work for the economy. If it was free to do an engineering degree, but £20k a year to read law, for instance...

CKhalvashi

vivatifosi wrote: »

I must have done my weekly supermarket shop near one of those today. It's the first time I've notice people walking round the supermarket wearing shorts, vest tops and those electronic ankle bracelet things.

I don’t think Pastures meant that :T:rotfl:

silvercar

Nottingham was rated a lot higher back then than it is now, but actually UCL was above it in the league tables for my subject at the time.

In the 80s |Nottingham wasn't that highly ranked. Lots of people had it as a back up - decent red brick, russell group gave reasonably lowish offers. Then lots of people expecting mediocre grades chose it as first choice. Suddenly it had more applicants per place than lots of better places and gradually moved up the popularity stakes.

Virtually everyone my son knows had it on their list. One of the reasons he decided not to choose it, though it was one of his 5.

silvercar

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Trouble is you don't get your results until July, and you start uni in september if you're going straight away. Would be difficult for the universities to fit everything in in such a short time, and it's also in the middle of the summer holidays when a lot of the staff aren't actually there, and no undergrads around to help out with tours etc.

Results are 16 August, so even less time to sort things out.

silvercar

LydiaJ wrote: »

Just what I was thinking. I had interviews at Birmingham and Exeter, I think, or possibly Southampton as well, all of which were timed so I could get there on the train, do the interview (including free lunch), and get home again in a day - although none of them was a particularly long way from Bristol, which was where I was living at the time. My Oxford interview was over a couple of days, but we only had to get ourselves there (train with YP railcard again) - all food and a room overnight in college was provided for interview candidates.

I was offered interviews at all my 5 choices and went to 4 of them, think bad weather hit the 5th. Train there and back in a day, though I remember you could opt to stay overnight on a students floor very cheaply if you wished to sample uni life. I think the students offering this "service" were paid about a fiver by the potential student.