The Student Room Group

Should university be free

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Reply 80
Original post by MathSci1999
yh, and it shoudl be england who recieevs it free first, then the EU, surely.
like it would be understandable if england got it free but EU did not


yeah. The tories' policies for the past 5 years resulted in a lot of resentment, which was directed towards the EU... arguably they caused Brexit

Hopefully JC can sort out a lot of the problems, such as uni fees. However, I really disagree with some policies like restoring EMA. I can understand if the school was given extra money to spend on students e.g. organising transport, giving extra textbooks etc but it seems like beer money tbh

I would be especially angry if all the people who graduated with massive amounts of debt did not have it wiped off, but new graduates would come out with no tuition fee debt. That would undermine the value of degrees and anger a lot of people

The tories really screwed us over
Reply 81
Original post by Helloworld_95
It should cost although we should charge based upon value of the qualification and get companies to subsidise the difference, e.g. mechanical engineering should cost less because companies demand it more and so subsidise it and ideally also run industrial training programs with the uni.

Degree content should also be open source as the value of a degree comes from the validation of knowledge not the knowledge itself.


What about medicine? Doesn't that cost like £250k to train a medical student?
But surely the skills they will learn will benefit us all - can a monetary value be placed on that? Should the NHS fully subsidise the cost of that - there's already an NHS bursary for 5th yr onwards

Surely your proposed subsidising strategy would kill off art subjects??
Original post by Jitesh
What about medicine? Doesn't that cost like £250k to train a medical student?
But surely the skills they will learn will benefit us all - can a monetary value be placed on that? Should the NHS fully subsidise the cost of that - there's already an NHS bursary for 5th yr onwards

Surely your proposed subsidising strategy would kill off art subjects??


The NHS already subsidises the cost of that it's not just the bursary they provide, and I'm saying subsidise above what the government already does, not cut off all government subsidies.

I don't think it'll kill off arts subjects but it'll make people think more about whether it's worth going to university to do one and universities will have to make them into more marketable qualifications by introducing more professional components.
Reply 83
Original post by Helloworld_95
The NHS already subsidises the cost of that it's not just the bursary they provide, and I'm saying subsidise above what the government already does, not cut off all government subsidies.

I don't think it'll kill off arts subjects but it'll make people think more about whether it's worth going to university to do one and universities will have to make them into more marketable qualifications by introducing more professional components.


But who would fund/subsidise art subjects?
I think there are quite a few scholarships for engineering etc from big companies, but these are very competitive. I can understand your point though
Original post by #ChaosKass
I don't see anything wrong with what I've proposed.

Young people who want to go to university can get a part time job when they turn 16, and then work full time for a couple of years once their A-levels have finished. Assuming they are still living with their parents during this time, they would have saved enough for the tuition fees and majority of living costs for their three years of university. Then they can get a part-time job while at university and, complete with internships in the summer, will have more than enough to get themselves through to graduation. Plus all this experience they have amassed will put them in a good position to get a decent job after uni.

This way university is accessible to all, while also allowing young people to get a wide variety of work and life experience.


Let's assume that one humble 18 year old with bugger all cash (not very rich parents) wants to go to say, Oxford to do medicine. 6 year degree, 9 grand a year afaik, he's gonna have to come up with 54,000, not including living costs. By your proposed plan of going in a couple of years, he's gonna need to be on 27 grand a year. This is when he has no qualifications aside from A levels, and in which time he won't gather up many useful skills from the experience beyond some public service stuff and communication unless he opted for an apprenticeship in some sort of fancy engineering thing in that time, which pays bugger all. All that done before accommodation fees and living costs are even factored in.

Right.

Spoiler

Original post by #ChaosKass
I don't see anything wrong with what I've proposed.

Young people who want to go to university can get a part time job when they turn 16, and then work full time for a couple of years once their A-levels have finished. Assuming they are still living with their parents during this time, they would have saved enough for the tuition fees and majority of living costs for their three years of university. Then they can get a part-time job while at university and, complete with internships in the summer, will have more than enough to get themselves through to graduation. Plus all this experience they have amassed will put them in a good position to get a decent job after uni.

This way university is accessible to all, while also allowing young people to get a wide variety of work and life experience.


How about degrees that require you to do work experience to get in and then during the holidays once at uni? This limits the amount of paid work people can do. This includes people studying veterinary medicine and nursing, which are very intense courses as they are. Students doing these courses probably can't work during term time either due to being in lectures/practicals/tutorials etc
Original post by Jitesh
But who would fund/subsidise art subjects?
I think there are quite a few scholarships for engineering etc from big companies, but these are very competitive. I can understand your point though


The journalism and legal industries would probably be the top contributors, I'm sure there are others but I can't think of any at the moment. There aren't that many scholarships for engineering, most of the big companies recruit via internships and universities they have research partnerships with.

But the point is companies don't have to subsidise them, you have your max fee of ~£9,000 or whatever and then the more demand for your course the less you pay.
Reply 87
Original post by Helloworld_95
The journalism and legal industries would probably be the top contributors, I'm sure there are others but I can't think of any at the moment. There aren't that many scholarships for engineering, most of the big companies recruit via internships and universities they have research partnerships with.

But the point is companies don't have to subsidise them, you have your max fee of ~£9,000 or whatever and then the more demand for your course the less you pay.


But won't this idea just -> increased prices affecting the consumer?
We need more doctors atm but I doubt the gov would prepare to subsidise the cost even more for docs
Original post by Jitesh
But won't this idea just -> increased prices affecting the consumer?
We need more doctors atm but I doubt the gov would prepare to subsidise the cost even more for docs


There's no reason that it would increase prices, personnel costs are a very small proportion of overall product cost and a let's say £1,500 subsidisation for an entire degree is a drop in the bucket.

To be fair if you go to medical school you're also not going to have problems repaying your student loan and it's the kind of career where the money to get in doesn't matter so much. They would also be subsidised by the armed forces who currently offer scholarships and I'd guess the pharmaceutical industry would also put in a small subsidisation.
The cost of attending university should be covered by a student loan. The loans these days aren't even close.
This means that you can afford to attend regardless of your background because you don't need to borrow money from parents.
It shouldn't be free because it has enormous value that would be depreciated if it's free. A degree will in theory get you a better paid job so you should be prepared to pay for it.
Original post by niteninja1
Should university be free


You have to take into account the people who work in universities too, right? If they were free, would I be right to assume that they would be government paid in that circumstance?

If they were, the taxpayer would be paying for them anyway, so university can never truly be free...
Original post by Kenaniah Rona
You have to take into account the people who work in universities too, right? If they were free, would I be right to assume that they would be government paid in that circumstance?

If they were, the taxpayer would be paying for them anyway, so university can never truly be free...


Unless we all lived in a truly communist society.

(I'm not really an advocate of communism but it sounds nice on paper doesn't it)
Original post by Marked Target
Unless we all lived in a truly communist society.

(I'm not really an advocate of communism but it sounds nice on paper doesn't it)


It does sound good on paper, until we realise we have an army of bin men because they are paid the same wages as doctors... Exactly what we would have if the government makes us pay too much for uni... oh wait
Not free but making it cheaper would be good.
It will never be free.

The question is who pays for it?

My gripe with the current situation is that the politicians who decided to cut govt subsidies and force the increase in fees were all beneficiaries of higher education fully funded by the taxpayer.
Original post by AndrewSCO
Ahhhh if only you guys lived in Scotland :cool:


Hook me up with one of your Scottish cousins please. If I marry him, maybe I'll get cheaper fees :tongue:

Original post by Maker
But clever people can.


I don't normally agree with you but slayy
I wouldn't mind paying for uni but honestly £9k is way too much. I'd rather pay £3k-6k.
Original post by MrsSheldonCooper
Hook me up with one of your Scottish cousins please. If I marry him, maybe I'll get cheaper fees :tongue:



I don't normally agree with you but slayy


Don't think that would even actually work haha

Think you either need to be Scottish or have lived here for 3/5 years, maybe that's wrong though :tongue:

But if you're willing to commit to that I'll get my 26 year old, single cousin on the phone for ya :wink:
Original post by AndrewSCO
Don't think that would even actually work haha

Think you either need to be Scottish or have lived here for 3/5 years, maybe that's wrong though :tongue:

But if you're willing to commit to that I'll get my 26 year old, single cousin on the phone for ya :wink:


Depends. Does he have a Scottish accent and a dog?

If I marry a Scot I get Scot citizenship :colone:
Original post by MrsSheldonCooper
Depends. Does he have a Scottish accent and a dog?

If I marry a Scot I get Scot citizenship :colone:


Is there even such thing as Scot citizenship? Aren't we all just UK citizenship? I dunno :tongue:

He does have a Scottish accent but no dog unfortunately. My brother is also single and then you can have Toby but that'd be weird setting you up with my brother..

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