Student Loans

Spendless

missbiggles1 wrote: »

For somebody who's neither motivated nor academic, he might well be in the same situation in 3 years' time but with many thousands of debt so I rather agree with his parents' attitude on this.

Sorry, I've re-read what I've put and don't think I made it clear that it is parents who don't want him to go to Uni (because of the debt). Son hasn't fetched subject up. Just you've mentioned him being unmotivated and re-reading that might have come across as me saying he's said he doesn't wish to go. He hasn't said that (he hasn't said he'd like to go either), it was a discussion I was having with his Mum. You might have come to that conclusion based on other info I've given though.

missbiggles1

Arleen wrote: »

You may actually want to read the entire post if that is your conclusion. Because if a parent, someone who has been in workforce for tens of years, has problem to come up with that amount of money, good luck to someone new to the job market to do that. And that is the point, because parent knows how hard it is to save up any substantial amount of money, while the kid, usually, doesn't. And yet the kids will go and spend money, which they don't have, on degrees that usually do not lead to the dream 60k+ jobs they were "promised" by universities.
Meanwhile the interest just keeps on rolling.

And if you think that this is "over the top", i recommend checking up some surveys about university graduates. Granted most of them are done in the US, but there are some done in the UK, for example: http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/majority-of-uk-graduates-are-working-in-a-job-that-doesnt-require-a-university-degree-new-survey-10385832.html

It was a catchy slogan of the early to mid 20th century: "Go to the university, escape the life of poverty", but it sadly doesn't work that way. All it did was drive higher education prices through the roof while lowering youth employment rates.

I read your post - it was wrong.:D

(I expect I know more about student destinations than you do but I won't keep you...)

missbiggles1

Spendless wrote: »

Sorry, I've re-read what I've put and don't think I made it clear that it is parents who don't want him to go to Uni (because of the debt). Son hasn't fetched subject up. Just you've mentioned him being unmotivated and re-reading that might have come across as me saying he's said he doesn't wish to go. He hasn't said that (he hasn't said he'd like to go either), it was a discussion I was having with his Mum. You might have come to that conclusion based on other info I've given though.

Don't worry, that was the way I read it.:)

Spendless

missbiggles1 wrote: »

For somebody who's neither motivated nor academic, he might well be in the same situation in 3 years' time but with many thousands of debt so I rather agree with his parents' attitude on this.

I suppose I take the view, that if he's still the same in 3 years then he's unlikely to pay much if any of his loan back, so what difference does it make?

Going slightly on a different angle for a minute, this week I took DD to see an end of year show by the drama dept. My mistake I thought we were watching the local colleges sixth form, and I wanted to know their calibre. We weren't, we were watching the degree students. It was dire! At the end of it, I felt sorry for the kids on it. They were clearly on it because they enjoyed doing it, but this wasn't going to lead to anything and it was using up their years of being entitled to student funding. I looked up the destinations of former students when I got home and the only ones listed were those who were now teaching.

Arleen

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I read your post - it was wrong.:D

(I expect I know more about student destinations than you do but I won't keep you...)

Well thanks for your lack of input then. It's easy to just go around saying "you are wrong", it's hard to put some value behind the words.

missbiggles1

Spendless wrote: »

I suppose I take the view, that if he's still the same in 3 years then he's unlikely to pay much if any of his loan back, so what difference does it make?

Going slightly on a different angle for a minute, this week I took DD to see an end of year show by the drama dept. My mistake I thought we were watching the local colleges sixth form, and I wanted to know their calibre. We weren't, we were watching the degree students. It was dire! At the end of it, I felt sorry for the kids on it. They were clearly on it because they enjoyed doing it, but this wasn't going to lead to anything and it was using up their years of being entitled to student funding. I looked up the destinations of former students when I got home and the only ones listed were those who were now teaching.

The trouble with looking at it like that is that if in the future he decides that there's something he really wants/needs to study, he'll have used up his student funding and it'll be virtually impossible to do it.

I've had several clients in that position who've been devastated to realise the doors they've closed for themselves because they've wasted their allocation of student funding in this way.

Spendless

missbiggles1 wrote: »

The trouble with looking at it like that is that if in the future he decides that there's something he really wants/needs to study, he'll have used up his student funding and it'll be virtually impossible to do it.

I've had several clients in that position who've been devastated to realise the doors they've closed for themselves because they've wasted their allocation of student funding in this way.

Ahh yes, I see what you mean. That was pretty much my thoughts about the show we saw.

Lungboy

Spendless wrote: »

What's the criteria? I know someone whose eldest has been accepted onto a course in The Netherlands but they have to work for x amount of weeks over a year. I am wondering for them if language will be an issue, only because I know someone who lives over there, she married a Dutch man and she struggled with work due to not knowing the language.

I've no idea, but I read a few news articles on the subject recently. German universities and towns go out of their way to get foreign students to come and study, it really is the polar opposite of the UK. Language could be an issue, but its a great way to add a new language which opens all sorts of doors.

Edit: this was one of the stories How US students get a university degree for free in Germany - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32821678. A quick Google brings up a ton of info.

andyfromotley

Dill wrote: »

The State hasn't funded students' higher education since about the late 1980s. Nowadays it is like America, - if you want to get a college degree you have to pay for it. Personally I would rather the government supported the top 2% to go to university, but while they want 50% of school-leavers to "go to uni" someone somewhere has to pay for it. That amount of tuition and maintenance costs can't be funded by taxation.

This is nonsense. Of course we could afford to fund it through taxation. We choose not to which is quite a different thing.

Spendless

missbiggles1 wrote: »

The trouble with looking at it like that is that if in the future he decides that there's something he really wants/needs to study, he'll have used up his student funding and it'll be virtually impossible to do it.

I've had several clients in that position who've been devastated to realise the doors they've closed for themselves because they've wasted their allocation of student funding in this way.

I've had a think about this and considering he's not overly academic, I think the chances of him wanting to do something that will need a degree in later life are minimal. My thoughts were for him to go away to study and even if the qualification doesn't directly lead to work, then maybe the network of different people he'll meet and a new location will. I see remaining where he currently is, just more of the same 3 years down the line.

I realise I didn't also add that the parents attitude also extends to their youngest, who gained 10 A/A* gcse's and on the strength of that got a scholarship to an Independant school for sixth form, is just sitting A levels and has an unconditional offer from a Uni.