Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

You were doing so well - actually your first reply did make sense in the context of the question and so had you just left it at that rather than backtracking we would all have thought PN does know about it. I was hoping that SilverCar having claimed to be a statistician might have had a view tho...

Re-reading apologies if this sounds patronising, it isn't meant to be.

The thing is ... if you spoke English, I might have actually known the answer

All this high falutin' language you use just confuses me.

I do know that mathematically squaring then square rooting works for some interesting statistical calculations for comparing things.... so I thought I'd throw it out there.

It's hard being a genius without a clue you know.

PasturesNew

chewmylegoff wrote: »

you don't pay until afterwards.

The trouble is, a lot will never pay. So many drop out, or never take a higher pay job, or just get pregnant/married and never use their degree.

I bet there's a calculation somewhere that says I can f4nny about on loans in a Uni for X years at some point, calculating the right year to do that so that I'll never have to pay a bean back. I guess I could do it now. Repayment is low anyway.... I wonder how much you have to earn/how many years you have to work before a median salary of a graduate's paid off the loans.

zagubov

PasturesNew wrote: »

I often think about "trades" to see if I can think of one that I could actually manage to do.... e.g. tiling would appeal, but I'd not be able to carry all those heavy tiles round about and the mess of building work would drive me nuts.

I learnt a trade... trouble is, that trade was killed by technology.

So you need to learn a trade that doesn't require you to continually re-skill/re-qualify (look what happened to gas with Corgi, and electricians with a P Certificate, etc). And it needs to be something you can reasonably do until you're nearly 70 (nothing heavy). And it needs to be something that doesn't actually require "talent", but can be learnt. And it needs to be something that a machine can't do faster/better/cheaper.

Any ideas?

Sugarcraft baking.

Used to work in a college down south that taught it. Went back to Glasgow for a visit and when driving round the city centre saw a major hotel was having an exhibit of my college's sugarcraft work!
400 miles from the college!

Plus a few years back it was number 1 on the needed trades for Australian immigration.:dance:

chewmylegoff

PasturesNew wrote: »

The trouble is, a lot will never pay. So many drop out, or never take a higher pay job, or just get pregnant/married and never use their degree.

I bet there's a calculation somewhere that says I can f4nny about on loans in a Uni for X years at some point, calculating the right year to do that so that I'll never have to pay a bean back. I guess I could do it now. Repayment is low anyway.... I wonder how much you have to earn/how many years you have to work before a median salary of a graduate's paid off the loans.

The fact that you don't repay until you earn over a certain threshold is important in making it fair I think (if you didn't do this you'd have to start making a lot of people bankrupt which would be silly).

Apparently in germany the system is such that you dont have to start repaying until 3 years after you leave, and if you have a child then you don't have to make any payments for another 3 years, tabs if you don't make any payments by 10 years after you leave then they write the whole lot off. Supposedly lots of women therefore have 3 children at 3 year intervals. Probably nonsense.

The Australian system writes off fees if you leave Australia and stay away for ten years. OH has one more year to go!

zagubov

chewmylegoff wrote: »

The fact that you don't repay until you earn over a certain threshold is important in making it fair I think (if you didn't do this you'd have to start making a lot of people bankrupt which would be silly).

Apparently in germany the system is such that you dont have to start repaying until 3 years after you leave, and if you have a child then you don't have to make any payments for another 3 years, tabs if you don't make any payments by 10 years after you leave then they write the whole lot off. Supposedly lots of women therefore have 3 children at 3 year intervals. Probably nonsense.

Germany's in demographic decline (or at least the East was) so this would be worth their while!.
I heard Singapore had a system of paying more to mothers if they were graduates.

chewmylegoff wrote: »

The Australian system writes off fees if you leave Australia and stay away for ten years. OH has one more year to go!

I'd read the reason it's called a loan system is so they can chase you for the money abroad - which they can't if it was a graduate tax.

chewmylegoff

PasturesNew wrote: »

I bet there's a calculation somewhere that says I can f4nny about on loans in a Uni for X years at some point, calculating the right year to do that so that I'll never have to pay a bean back. I guess I could do it now.

I think you have to go to uni before you are 25 to qualify for the loans dont think mature students can get them but may be mistaken (if you could then everyone would do a degree for 3 years before retirement!)

Repayment is low anyway.... I wonder how much you have to earn/how many years you have to work before a median salary of a graduate's paid off the loans.

Part of the problem is that the "median graduate salary" is meaningless as there are so many graduates with worthless degrees skewing the figures. The average salary of a job which really requires a degree (e.g. Solicitor, accountant, doctor) vs. the average earned by people who have a degree (e.g. Including all the aforementioned but also charity mugger, call centre phone jockey, barman) are two completely different numbers (artificially skewed again by jobs which do not require a degree but which start requiring one just cos everyone has one (e.g. Management trainees).

zagubov

LydiaJ wrote: »

There are always stories like that going round sixth-formers and those that teach them. They're all wild over-generalisations. Those sorts of decisions are mostly made at the departmental level, so that what's true for one subject may be quite the opposite for another. For example, when I was young the received wisdom was that Bristol wouldn't consider you if you didn't put them as first choice on your form. ??

I never heard about the Nottingham inflexibilty, just noticed it myself from years of applicants. Only people that got lesser offers were for less popular courses. I suppose that a uni with a medical school will have life science courses that are good back doors into medicine and can make high offers.

I'd heard the Bristol rumour but never promoted it as I'd no evidence for it.

I did have loads of students trying to get to Brighton and did warn them about the high cost of living (similar to Aberdeen and London, but with no London weighting).

LydiaJ wrote: »

So the archetypal NP is a scientist who loves mushrooms, lives in Herts, is married to a Jew and ... what have I missed out??

That we're all insomniacs with broadband, old enough to have wisdom (or false) teeth. And good taste in music??:o

PasturesNew

zagubov wrote: »

That we're all insomniacs with broadband, old enough to have wisdom (or false) teeth. And good taste in music??:o

I am an insomniac, I don't have broadband (in fact I just struggled to get any kind of Internet for the past 15 minutes)... I have some wisdom and I have teeth.... and everybody thinks they have good taste in music, so that can't count.

PasturesNew

zagubov wrote: »

Sugarcraft baking.

I don't even know what that is.... but, on the basis it's some form of cooking, I've never done any cooking classes ever.... and it also sounds like it needs some creative skill .... and to not be ham-fisted (which I can be as I get in a panic when around delicate things).

Next!!

PasturesNew

chewmylegoff wrote: »

I think you have to go to uni before you are 25 to qualify for the loans dont think mature students can get them but may be mistaken (if you could then everyone would do a degree for 3 years before retirement!)

I've googled it.

But I don't really understand, so can't say what it says really ..... looks like: Student Loan, Maintenance Grant, Tuition Fees and no Council Tax to pay.

Sounds like a better deal than getting a proper job!