Universities bribed £1000 to accept D students! - Are degrees becoming useless?

Legacy_user

I'm currently working in Bay (a clothes shop) as an assistant and I just learnt that one of my co-workers is a law graduate, (from a less known uni) and she can't find a better job!

- A-levels are "getting easier",
- More funding is being given to people who can't afford uni,
- Unis are being "bribed" to take D grade students,

it seems practically anyone can get into university nowadays!

Article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=527391&in_page_id=1770


With so many graduates, do you think a degree is really worth the £3070 (soon to be £3135) a year, if it isn't from a top university?

mummytofour

Hmmm everybody has the right to a good education, however what is the point of trying to study something that is just too hard for you and you end up failing? I can understand the additional support funding, a great idea, but it is easy to become de-motivated when things are just to difficult to understand.
Back in the days of the ark, just after i failed all my GCSES I went to college, in those days if you had no GCSES then you could do a one yr course in whatever subject ( I wanted to do building studies) the 2 yr course was for those people that had good GCSES. My 1 year course was cancelled so they moved me up to the 2 yr course, as I drowned in classes that went way over my head my poor self estime went out of the window and I went out the door!
Now ,at 30 I find out I am dyslexic and have finally found a college that supports my needs and is amazing, Come Sep I will be at Uni!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But it took me a long time to be brave enough to go bk to college after that drowning experiance.
Basically I feel that trying to study for a degree when you can not cope with A-levels no matter how much additional support you have, is doomed to fail.

melancholly

a poor degree from a poor university hasn't been worth much for quite a few years - that's nothing new..... i don't trust a word in the daily mail though, and haven't found articles about this particular issue on the BBC's or the Guardian's website so i'm not sure what to say about that without reading some more on it!

Stubert

candyflossing wrote: »

- A-levels are "getting easier",
- More funding is being given to people who can't afford uni,
- Unis are being "bribed" to take D grade students,

it seems practically anyone can get into university nowadays!

Anybody can get in? So poorer people shouldn't be offered the chance to go? Thats what you're implying when you complain about the other things.

Get over yourself, everybody deserves a chance at a good education rich or poor.

System

I didn't mean it that way! ... I meant the funding is encouraging people who wouldn't normally want to go to university to go. I've know loads of people (including my friends) who got full bursaries, and tell me that uni isn't their thing, and that if it wasn't for the money they would have gone straight to work.

It seems to me that the funding (in some cases) can act as a bribe. Particularly what some unis are doing - in Kent, students from poorer families are given up to £11, 000. A sum they don't need to repay. That's a ridiculous amount of taxpayers money.

If you're just going to uni 'for the sake of it' and 'because of the free money' shouldn't it be given to someone who wants to go for the education?

Once you're 18, you're an adult, and what your parents earn has nothing to do with how much money you should get to go to university. .

As for the article - its in the evening standard (a more trustworthy paper)
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23449446-details/Now+universities+get+a+£1%2C000+bribe+to+take+D-grade+students/article.do

celyn90

D grades? My brother got in with two U's and an N and that was seven years ago. Left after 10 months though. Now earns a very good wage working for a major retailer and loves his job.

I have a lot of friends who went to Uni and now work in retail, I also have friends who went to Uni and have never worked because they considered some jobs beneath them - they weren't willing to start at the bottom of anything and now they are unemployable. The ones that worked always did better in the long run, no matter what sort of work they did. Nothing is beneath you if it is in the direction of your life, and a work ethic is the most important thing you can have, no matter if you studied or didn't study.

University for the most part doesn't automatically put you in a good job - working hard, being committed, being bright and articulate, having good references, searching out opportunities, being willing, showing a potential employer that you are right for them, being continually willing to train and adapt and a smattering of luck - these are the sorts of things that get you employed. I've met so many people that think the world will come and find them just because they have a degree. Education is very worthwhile, but only as part of a larger tapestry of who you are.

Sometimes it takes people a long time to find direction in their life. You're still very young when you go to Uni and many won't want to stick in the field they trained in when they are finished, especially as Uni should be a very different environment to the learning systems previously encountered - so the whole process of adapting and realigning happens again and many end up in working in areas unrelated to their first degree. My best friend did marine biology - she now works in catering.

Mummytofour - well done! My mum was a returner to education too and she graduates next year - I'm so proud of her.

bestpud

candyflossing wrote: »

I didn't mean it that way! ... I meant the funding is encouraging people who wouldn't normally want to go to university to go. I've know loads of people (including my friends) who got full bursaries, and tell me that uni isn't their thing, and that if it wasn't for the money they would have gone straight to work.

It seems to me that the funding (in some cases) can act as a bribe. Particularly what some unis are doing - in Kent, students from poorer families are given up to £11, 000. A sum they don't need to repay. That's a ridiculous amount of taxpayers money.

If you're just going to uni 'for the sake of it' and 'because of the free money' shouldn't it be given to someone who wants to go for the education?

Once you're 18, you're an adult, and what your parents earn has nothing to do with how much money you should get to go to university. .

As for the article - its in the evening standard (a more trustworthy paper)
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23449446-details/Now+universities+get+a+£1%2C000+bribe+to+take+D-grade+students/article.do

Well, I know of lots of academically able people who've gained good degrees (and other advantages) from university but who would not even have had the chance without funding.

However, with a system like this, if you look hard enough, you will find people to fit the argument you wish to back!

How do you think the govt should assess who would have gone anyway so they can give them help but not others?

Because we surely don't want to go back to the days when wealth was the deciding factor do we?

cupid_s

My husband got into a top uni with a C and 2 D grades 7 years ago. Luckily for him they 'forgot' to put his course in the prospectus that year and so only a handful of people actually applied for it so they accepted him with those grades.

He was the first person on his course to ever get a first and he has just passed his PhD and has a pretty well paid job that he loves. If you are determined then you shouldn't be stopped from going to uni because you have low grades.

However I do think A-levels have become easier to do well in now. My course required BCC when I started and now they ask for AAA. I've been told by the teaching staff it is because if they accepted BCC now the students would be rubbish and they ask for AAA to ensure they get the same quality of intake as they did when they asked for BCC.

System

No, we shouldn't go back to the days when wealth was a deciding factor. But we also shouldn't assume that rich parents are all going to pay for their childrens university fees, and that poor parents are not. What's wrong with letting children work before/during uni to help pay for their own fees?

Also, I don't see how someone (without a disability) can achieve D grades and actually want to go to university?

When it comes to A levels I don't think it's about 'how clever you are' but how much effort you put in. Most of the questions I faced (in English, Maths, Chemistry & Biology) required memory more than understanding, which required revision, more than raw intelligence.

If you're not willing to put the effort into
1. getting good grades
2. earning the money to pay for your fees yourself

then do you really deserve a degree?

debtfreestudent

the university system is soo out dated it needs to be overhauled .When i left school (scotland) i had an A in business management and a C in english , thats all .I was lucky enough to be accepted into a summer school programme at the university of the west of scotland(formally paisley uni) in the summer school i was given a taste of university life and had to sit an entry exam .I have now gone on to my Honours degree ,which i finish in may .I have been asked by the uni to go onto to my phd which they will fund.This shows that highers and a levels are not the be all and end all .University is a different way of learning , and learning subjects that you are interestedd in .
As for funding i have my own property and mortgage ,i have lived away from home for almost 4 years , yet due to funding rules i have to get my loan and bursary based on my parents income as i cannot provide three years of fulltime p60s .I do not receive any support from my parents (as i want to do this my self).
Students leave university with degrees and end up in call centres and shops because many expect to walk into jobs , which is not the case .Anyone leaving university should be prepared to fight for a position and possibly move or earn less than expected .Students are not made aware of how hard it is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

windswept

A levels easier???
Are you kidding?
My daughter is in her 2nd year, doing maths, english and psychology - she has just got a U in her maths module retake, she got an A (almost A*) in her gcse maths.
Not one of her class got higher than E for this maths as module.
She's been offered a conditional place at Keele (she needs 300 points _ that's 3 B grades, for an educational studies degree - it doesn't look like she stands a chance).
She's at Edge Hill today for an interview for primary maths with qts - she needs 200 points for that along with at least a D in maths - she has GOT to pull up for her final exam and her resit.
She has decided to resit all but her English exams so will have 9 exams in June - I would hardly call that "easy".