The Student Room Group

Tuition fees heading over £9,500

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Original post by Retired_Messiah
The only marginally decent apprenticeships I see advertised towards me are practical sort of building and engineering things, and such like that's very pigeonholing into a certain type of career. Now, I'm no good at practical things, to the extent that I managed to effectively get myself kicked off the GCSE course for engineering.

That leaves me with the "lesser" apprenticeships, which are more "general" in that they don't force a particular route, but they're those such as the glorious aldi one or one in my local specsavers. I could not give a single **** about that sort of thing.

This leaves me with perhaps average office jobs where I start at the bottom and over years work my way up at best, given my lack of particular talents that would serve me well for entering into marginally more interesting higher paid jobs eg a chef. Worse case, I'm in glorious manual labour or some retail arsing around. The only other thing I can think of to avoid all that sort of gubbins would be joining the army or something, which isn't a great prospect really. In the average office scenario, there's a chance I may still be stifled slightly by lacking any decent fancy qualification.

I've sat and thought about this before and the only thing I can really think of that would help to get me a job where I firstly would actually be able to do with my skillset and secondly wouldn't make me want to end my own life (or at the very least be high paying enough to push those thoughts away) would be doing a degree of some kind.

Unless I've missed something obvious....


Perhaps you personally are suited to university and I'm not saying that nobody should go. The thing is, so many people go, and it's just a huge waste of money as they never use their degree. I believe if kids weren't so pushed to go to uni straight after finishing college/ A levels then they would go out into the world and discover the ocean of opportunity that there really is. If I had £9000 to spend, I think uni would be the absolute biggest waste of it possible. Life, travel and experiences teach you just so much more (of course not about specifics like engineering). They would learn to think outside of the box and see that there's so much more than just getting ripped off by UK universities. Trust me, I've seen and experience a lot and am very happy I didn't go to uni here. If i ever do decide that I'de like to study something then it certainly won't be in this country which is a far better option IMO. As I've gone out and learned multiple languages and made many contacts, this is now an option for me.
So first it's the demolishing of maintenence grants, now to inflation of uni tuition. What's next? You have to start paying as soon as you leave uni? This is getting ridiculous
(edited 7 years ago)
Looking through this thread, and in other places, there seems to be quite a bit of misinformation about how student finance works, so I though I'd make a quick post to try and clear things up a bit. I'm not trying to convince people one way or the other, just to provide them with information so they can really make an informed decision.

* On an annual basis, the amount you repay isn't based on how much you've borrowed, but on how much you earn. I've made a graph to illustrate this point:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/idv0ubd45v . Effectively, this means that if, by the time the loan is forgiven (after 30 years for most people), you wouldn't have paid back the loan at £9,000 a year, you wouldn't pay anything more than if fees were £9,250/year, £9,500/year, or £25,000/year. This mainly affect those who would pay back the £9,000/year before 30 years, as they would have to pay back for longer.

* Calling it student "debt" is a tad misleading. For one, it doesn't have to be paid back at a specific date or anything like that. Secondly, it doesn't show up on a credit file or anything like that. Thirdly, the amount you pay back is based on how much you earn, not the size of the repayable amount itself. There's quite an interesting blog that proposes calling in a "graduate contribution" instead of a "loan":
http://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2012/09/20/student-loans-arent-a-debt-change-the-name-to-avert-a-national-tragedy/

Now, going to university is certainly a big financial commitment, and it's important that people really understand what they're getting into. So that's why we should spread information, not misinformation. Let's be realistic about how student finance works - if we're not, the consequences could be dire.
Lmao brilliant.

What on earth do people really expect from this disgusting conservative government.
Reply 44
Original post by Sayf E Ghenaiet
Just go to a university in Denmark, not only is it free but the government there pays you as you study!


Taxes are not the same.
Wait so will the £9250 increase apply to students who will graduate in say 2018?


ffs
Original post by Mathemagicien
Meanwhile...

Wealth of people in their 30s has 'halved in a decade'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37508968


You mean you expect people who had their first decade of work through one of the biggest recessions in history and a long recovery to be as well off and people who over the same period were experiencing a boom period?
Original post by pinkypaz123
So first it's the demolishing of maintenence grants, now to inflation of uni tuition. What's next? You have to start paying as soon as you leave uni? This is getting rediculous


Do you know what the solution is? Don't go to uni.
Original post by sarskinz
Youre actually so annoying tbh.


This actually made me burst out laughing and idk why :lol:
The vast majority of people never fully pay back their loans- what's the point of increasing them?
Great, the exact year I'll be starting, f***kin great. :colone:
I really see no issue here , It's a very small increase year on year . Also remember you only pay back when you earn over 21k and the debt is written off after 30 years .. This is the cheapest loan you will every get
what the actual ****
I think some current students will be affected; at KCL they put in a little disclaimer saying they will put up fees.

To be honest, even if my tuition fees and loan remained the same I'd end up with just over £74k debt, and I know I'm looking at over £80k realistically... I'm not that fussed though.
The government hasn't even passed the legislation yet, hold onto your horses.

And before you say the govt has a majority, it's slim and with Brexit they're not exactly on the best terms with students lmao. They (Theresa) may (ayyyyyyyy) end up dropping it for now. Actually I think it's pretty likely, considering they've put off the vote for a while since the policy was announced.
Original post by jamestg
The government hasn't even passed the legislation yet, hold onto your horses.

And before you say the govt has a majority, it's slim and with Brexit they're not exactly on the best terms with students lmao. They (Theresa) may (ayyyyyyyy) end up dropping it for now. Actually I think it's pretty likely, considering they've put off the vote for a while since the policy was announced.



It's actually depressing tho, earlier I was working out TFL travel costs and that adds up to 1.5K at this years prices for 1 year...

On top of that we will pay 9.25 / 9.5k or even more...

The wealth of over 30s has halved in the last decade?
Heck, by 2025 we will be saying the wealth of over 30s has halved again in the last decade.

90s generation onwards is absolutely being ripped.
Reply 56
I don't understand why everyone is outraged by this. Yeh it's a little irritating, but it's not 'outrageous'. Some people really do take our loan system for granted. We have it so, so good compared to US students, for example.
Reply 57
Excellent news
Original post by Dez
The government just loves to con young people out of money. The fees go up every year "due to inflation", yet the repayment threshold remains completely unchanged since 2012.


Not only that, but there's absolutely no guarantee that the government won't tighten them in future, or push up the rates for existing loans.
fs.. this is bs urgh.

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