Education price tag

Well in NI we still only pay £3,500 (roughly) per year if you go to the two in NI so I guess we haven't really suffered. I qualify for a grant, too, but without I probably wouldn't have been able to go to university.
I do think it's unfair that England, Wales and Scotland for non Scottish students couldn't have kept it the same but unfortunately there's not much that can be done.

At least UK universities are cheaper than in America, especially if you go out of state!

Reply 3

OP

Original post by OMGWTFBBQ

Universities in this country are not state owned, and therefore there is no "state degree education".

Yes but they are supposedly state funded. Mostly by the student loan now.

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Reply 4

snailsareslimy

Well in NI we still only pay £3,500 (roughly) per year if you go to the two in NI so I guess we haven't really suffered. I qualify for a grant, too, but without I probably wouldn't have been able to go to university.
I do think it's unfair that England, Wales and Scotland for non Scottish students couldn't have kept it the same but unfortunately there's not much that can be done.

At least UK universities are cheaper than in America, especially if you go out of state!

Reply 5

SpiggyTopes

14

Why should you or I get a free degree? It's unfair to expect others to work hard so they can pay for you to get a degree.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 6

Bill_Gates

21

University is a business like any other! Demands appears to be sky high for degrees now

Reply 7

OP

Original post by snailsareslimy

Well in NI we still only pay £3,500 (roughly) per year if you go to the two in NI so I guess we haven't really suffered. I qualify for a grant, too, but without I probably wouldn't have been able to go to university.
I do think it's unfair that England, Wales and Scotland for non Scottish students couldn't have kept it the same but unfortunately there's not much that can be done.

At least UK universities are cheaper than in America, especially if you go out of state!

Yes thank goodness we are still cheaper than the US and we have income contingent loans. If it was like a proper commercial loan then I don't think anyone would go. Being charged interest is shocking as well I mean for goodness sake it's an education! Don't you think it's strange how we are all supposedly one country the UK yet it's always the English that pay the most for everything but what can you do. The Scottish pay nothing, NI students pay £3500 like you said. Welsh students get a large grant to cover the fee over £3500 wherever they study in the UK and the English and only the English pay the full up to £9000 fee. It's just a crying shame that everyone doesn't pay the same :frown:

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Reply 8

Thomas90

Given you only repay the loans if your degree leads you to a decent salary, I don't see the problem. Why should the tax payers have to cover the cost of degrees anyway, especially when so many go to uni for the sake of it to do something completely unproductive? There is no price barrier to education, as you don't pay until you earn enough to afford it, so stop complaining! There's places in this world where kids walk miles just to sit in a hut to learn the most basic of education, so perhaps take a step back and look at the bigger picture here...

Reply 9

kka25

Funny though; some of these astronomically pricey degrees have crappy quality education.

Reply 10

snailsareslimy

Original post by add4

Yes thank goodness we are still cheaper than the US and we have income contingent loans. If it was like a proper commercial loan then I don't think anyone would go. Being charged interest is shocking as well I mean for goodness sake it's an education! Don't you think it's strange how we are all supposedly one country the UK yet it's always the English that pay the most for everything but what can you do. The Scottish pay nothing, NI students pay £3500 like you said. Welsh students get a large grant to cover the fee over £3500 wherever they study in the UK and the English and only the English pay the full up to £9000 fee. It's just a crying shame that everyone doesn't pay the same :frown:

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I do think it's unfair but in NI we start paying back our loans once we're earning £15,000 rather than £20,000 in England (I've just roughly rounded it, can't remember the very exact figures :tongue:

) so at least you get an extra £5000 before money starts getting taken off your paycheque.
Plus the Scottish just use money from elsewhere to pay for university fees (money which NI and Wales invest in other places :tongue:

) so although it's good for students, it's not great for other areas of society.

It should be the same, though, especially as at one stage people got a university education for free!

Reply 11

OP

Original post by Thomas90

Given you only repay the loans if your degree leads you to a decent salary, I don't see the problem. Why should the tax payers have to cover the cost of degrees anyway, especially when so many go to uni for the sake of it to do something completely unproductive? There is no price barrier to education, as you don't pay until you earn enough to afford it, so stop complaining! There's places in this world where kids walk miles just to sit in a hut to learn the most basic of education, so perhaps take a step back and look at the bigger picture here...

Don't get me wrong I agree with the repayment terms etc and i agree with what you are saying which is why I am still going to go to university. It is just the fact that when you earn a higher wage you pay higher taxes so therefor you are already paying the state through your education benefit. Now they have added another 30 year tax on top of the 30-40-45 percent tax plus national insurance that you would already dish out before your student loan is taken into consideration. Nearly every other country besides America heavily subsidises home students as they benefit the economy in the long term.

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Reply 12

OP

Original post by snailsareslimy

I do think it's unfair but in NI we start paying back our loans once we're earning £15,000 rather than £20,000 in England (I've just roughly rounded it, can't remember the very exact figures :tongue:

) so at least you get an extra £5000 before money starts getting taken off your paycheque.
Plus the Scottish just use money from elsewhere to pay for university fees (money which NI and Wales invest in other places :tongue:

) so although it's good for students, it's not great for other areas of society.

It should be the same, though, especially as at one stage people got a university education for free!

Yes totally agree with what you are saying. £15000 I think you all should have the £21000 threshold as well :smile:

Yes although I will have more money in my pocket in the short term, to be honest I would rather pay my loan off quicker than have it drag out over 30 years!

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(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 13

OP

Original post by kka25

Funny though; some of these astronomically pricey degrees have crappy quality education.

Yes it is funny, why should a former polytechnic which is right down in the league tables and that provides little employment prospects have the right to charge the full £9000 the same as say Oxford and Cambridge. It's mad it's supposed to be a market but they are all charging ridiculous amounts. You can perhaps understand the top universities charging the full amount but I mean even some of these may not be all they are cracked up to be?

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Reply 14

Joinedup

20

Original post by add4

Yes it is funny, why should a former polytechnic which is right down in the league tables and that provides little employment prospects have the right to charge the full £9000 the same as say Oxford and Cambridge. It's mad it's supposed to be a market but they are all charging ridiculous amounts. You can perhaps understand the top universities charging the full amount but I mean even some of these may not be all they are cracked up to be?

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well they'll say that's what it costs to teach a student, It's not like they're running massive surpluses and having a high spend per student is a + factor is several league tables.

Obviously many unis are currently reluctant to price themselves lower than their percieved competitors, it appears to be the case from the top of the league table down.

Reply 15

nulli tertius

21

Original post by add4

Yes it is funny, why should a former polytechnic which is right down in the league tables and that provides little employment prospects have the right to charge the full £9000 the same as say Oxford and Cambridge. It's mad it's supposed to be a market but they are all charging ridiculous amounts. You can perhaps understand the top universities charging the full amount but I mean even some of these may not be all they are cracked up to be?

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Lord Browne who reported on higher education funding said this would happen. He rightly said that unless you had uncapped fees, everyone would price to the maximum. If we did have uncapped fees only the extremely wealthy would be paying them because almost everybody would be having some form of financial assistance from the university. Faced with actually having to set a price, many universities would go for a lower headline press to attract students.

The only protection the taxpayer needed was that however high or low a university set its fees, the level of student finance subsidy couldn't be increased. Anything that made student finance too expensive for government was clawed back from the university.

Reply 16

kka25