[Snagprophet]

No, I disagree with Labour about introducing tuition fees.

[Tackla]

I would have gone to uni if the fee was £3k, but now I cant go. Screw you Cameron.

[DarkWhite]

(Original post by funsongfactory)
If you train to be a teacher you're pretty much guaranteed a job but that doesnt mean the state should fund it.

I didn't say a single thing about the state funding medicine degrees. I was pointing out that medicine (and other NHS-funded) degrees isn't exactly the same debate as degrees funded entirely by the taxpayer for those using SLC...

[blueflower114]

(Original post by Sdiff)
Should students foot the bill for some, alot, all, none of their education, or should the taxpayer do so? Poll included. Assume that there is a student loan system in place which will give a loan to everybody, regardless of income.

I personally think there should be fees, but the cap should be higher and it should increase along with inflation.

I think the fees should be lowered to be honest. I don't understand why they have gone up so significantly higher- so annoying!

[Snagprophet]

(Original post by Tackla)
I would have gone to uni if the fee was £3k, but now I cant go. Screw you Cameron.

Why not?

[Tackla]

(Original post by Snagprophet)
Why not?

I cant take student loan out for religious reasons. If the fee was £3k I could fund it on my own somehow.

[Snagprophet]

(Original post by Tackla)
I cant take student loan out for religious reasons. If the fee was £3k I could fund it on my own somehow.

Lolwut?

[Tackla]

(Original post by Snagprophet)
Lolwut?

Muslims cant take student loan because it's to do with interest. Taking or giving of interest is forbidden. Obviously, some people take student loan; but they dont really care.

[r4ndom]

Ok. My new own and real case. I have just received a letter saying that as I went 2 years to University (In Spain... Didn't cost a single pound to England...) instead of 5 years I can only ask for the Loan 3 years.

They are taking away the first year which I have to pay all by myself. How great is that eh!

[M4LLY]

I personally agree with the concept of fees because it will encourage people to take their education more seriously should they choose to do it. But even i think 9000 is extortionante! Even though the repayment conditions have been altered its still got to suck being £27000 in debt (before factoring in maintainence loans) when you start your career.

The sad part is that regardless of how high the fees are there will still be those who go to uni because they simply cannot think of anything else to do or they have been misled to beleive that a degree is a guarantee of a good job. Theres one guy i know whos planning on doing a Geography degree simply because he thinks it'll guarantee him a good career and he thinks that uni is the only place he'll learn how to live by himself. He openly admits to not having looked into other options which seems somewhat immature as does admitting that THE main reason he wants to go to uni is for the parties. This, i'm afraid, is the sad state of the UK's tuition fee system.

[Fallen]

Fees should be tied to the subject you are doing. There is no reason why the taxpayer should have to fork out money to people can enjoy a "life experience", but we should encourage people to steer clear of saturated/useless degrees and into courses which our country is in desperate need (STEM, for example).

[Gales]

(Original post by Mr Dangermouse)
I'm Scottish so I get it free and don't have to work for an employer. U mad bro?

Nope! I'm Welsh and get a £5,000 grant of the Welsh Government and a further £3,500 off my university. This excludes loans. I'm more than happy not being Scottish

[johnaulich]

Education is the most powerful weapon against oppression we have. All you nay sayers may know the price of everything but you know the value of nothing. It should be free on principle. After all, we wouldn't want anyone accusing the state of relying on the ignorance of its people in order to maintain the status quo.

[chrisawhitmore]

(Original post by Ben Butler)
University should be funded by the taxpayer, just like school and college is. You get that for free and you earn your right go to uni by working hard, so why should you have to pay £9,000? It would almost certainly open university up to highly capable working class people who were deprived of the chance of going in the past because they couldn't afford to go.

Because you are thinking of university as it was before Blair. Now, you don't need to have done particularly well or be particularly bright to go to University. 3 C grades at A level will get you on to a 3 year degree. Also, the loans aren't paid back until you are working, so the amount of money you have going in is irrelevant. People from working class backgrounds come out with the same or less debt than people from middle class backgrounds.

[megan.c]

Fees suck but I could live with them... if the Scottish and Welsh paid the same.

You don't deserve to pay less than me just because you're from a difference province. Your uni fees are paid for with English people's taxes as well as those from the Scottish and Welsh, whilst English and Northern Irish students pay for themselves and spend the next few decades in massive debt.

Honestly disgusts me that they are able to get away with that - I don't see how anyone can justify it.

[MarshmallowTea]

I think there should be fees for university that students should be responsible to pay for themselves or through student loans (though I wouldn't say no to free education!) - if they're going to be £9000 per year and the taxpayer has to pay for them, thats an awful lot of money for someone to pay for another person's education. Plus, you just don't know whether the people you'd be paying for would actually use the 'free' uni education wisely.....

However, I really don't agree with £9,000 per year. Yes, you can get a loan, but you will still have to pay it back! Plus, there is interest on it - mine is currently about £360 a year. I'm not sure how interest works when you start repaying though, but that's still 9% of my salary that I would rather not need to repay! Of course, I do plan to repay it, as I don't expect other people to just pay it for me. The cost of a 3 year degree at £3000p/y and maintenance I can deal with, but if I got a five year student loan at £9000 for tuition and £6000 for maintenance, that would be another story! It would take a few decades to pay that back! If it was cheaper to study in the first place then it would be easier to repay, and I think it would encourage more people to go to university!

£3000 sounds about right - £9000 is ridiculously high, especially since it was increased threefold in such a short space of time. I'm going to be doing a second degree this September - since I received a loan for my first degree I think its fair that I pay for my second - although, its going to be very difficult to afford...!

I think my point is: student loans should be available to everybody, students and not taxpayers should pay for their tuition - but the cap should definitely be lowered!

[im so academic]

(Original post by Tackla)
I cant take student loan out for religious reasons. If the fee was £3k I could fund it on my own somehow.

That's your problem then. The student loan system is fine at present, and if you don't like it, tough.

[ForGreatJustice]

The system now is incredibly fair. You don't have to pay a penny up front, and you only pay back a % of what you earn over 15k (soon to be 21k).

Add in the maintainence grant, and university Bursaries +other Scholarships, it is an extremely generous system.

[Howard]

In the academic year 1970/71, there were 621,000 students in higher education; while in 2007/08 there were 2.5 million students in higher education in the UK. No doubt it's gone up a couple hundred thousand over the last for or five years.

Education is also a lot more expensive to provide today than it was in 1970.

So, common sense tells us that the taxpayer cannot soak up all the costs of having 2.7 million adults sitting in classrooms. There is no birthright to a free education and fees must be imposed if such vast numbers continue to choose to have a university education. The fees must be set at a level that reflects (1) student affordability and (2) the amount of burden that can reasonably be placed on working taxpayers - ideally as low as possible so univerity remains affordable but not so low that working people are screwed into the ground to pay for it all.

[Flair91]

Personally I know I will get a degree which should earn me a salary beyond the mean of most Britons.
Because of this future prosperity I'm perfectly happy to pay off the debts which brought me this good standard of living. I don't think people on minimum wage and low incomes should pay taxes so i can go to university just so I can out-earn them. It's just unfair.