Best wishes to our childrenin their continuing struggle agains CamClegg's iniquitous tuition fees

What I don't understand is how this is going to save money for the government, because it might well cost them a lot more in the long run, with people not paying back their loans, plus the knock-on effects for society as fewer people are educated/pay tax, etc.

Niceguy, oh the will certainly be paying more tax!

Education is one of the few things I believe is something we should subsidise because if you help people get better jobs, they (hopefully) pay more taxes and that benefits everyone.

and to all those who say why should we subsidise people to get degrees and earn loads of money when we are poor...i say remember that when you get crappy teachers, doctors, town planners, badly designed cars....in about 10 years time. And if you do a trade your hourly rate will probably be rock bottom because of all the new entrants who decided not to go to uni

Best wishes to the students here. So agree with those who look back at the free education we enjoyed and feel very sorry for students now. My older brothers did even better - they got grants that were quite high, plus were even able to sign on and claim housing benefits in the holidays! And yet it is this generation that is denying students not just the financial support they enjoyed for living costs, but even the right to have an education at all.

Certainly, I am currently teaching 16-18 year olds, and was looking at UCAS personal statements with them last week. The numbers who now say they don't want to go to university as they want 'don't want all that debt' is both sad and shocking. :(

And taking a cheque from a man you know to have zero money is foolhardy...

Writing cheques you cannot cash is fraud and punishable by imprisonment.

"they should have known their promises would be a pack of lies!"

Not lies.... just unlikely to happen. Writing cheques they knew they'd never be asked to cash. They could have offered all their voters a Ferrari, safe in the knowledge that they'd never have to deliver.

I graduated in 1991 and I finished my degree with exactly £0. Loans came in just as I left.
I got married between my second and third year at uni. and DH(who is 3 years older) and I were able to start married life not owing a penny. (We do not come from rich homes, but had lived carefully on standard grants).
I feel so lucky not to have entered adult life in debt and feel that the way students are treated today is wrong.

A legal challenge was heard on the 1st and 2nd November over the increase in fees. I won't hold my breath that it will be deemed illegal somehow but well done for bringing it.

I think that was the problem with the Lib Dems. They didnt really expect to get into power so their promises just had to sound good whilst not too outlandish.

Then when they got into power they realised they couldn't deliver. The thing is though that they could have under the coalition agreement simply abstained. What I think most people find unforgivable is that they not only broke their manifesto promise, but they actually went completely the other way!

Anyone who thought the LibDems would win the election with a comfortable majority and be able to enact any of their sillier promises should be prosecuted... for being a bit thick. The LDs have campaigned long and hard for PR and this is the reality of it. Compromise all the way and no-one able to be held to any promises because they're not in overall control..... comfy. So wake up and smell the coffee. When the party making the fanciest promises polls the fewest votes, those fancy promises will never see the light of day...

Funding was cut back in recent years I mean not found was cut back.

Right a bit of digging has found that you can get an apprenticeship if you are over 25, but the majority of employers are not that interested in providing it, at the last count there was 50,000 places for the over 25 in england and whales, the scheme was rolled out by mr Brown with an initial number of 450 places, but it proved extremely popular with more applicants then for the under 25's scheme, found was cut back in recent years, but this year was increased.

You know what lets stick it as a petition pole on that government website, restricting apprenticeship scheme to the under 25's is in deed ageism, why shouldn't a 40 odd year old plasterer get an apprenticeship as a plumber for example, the two go hand in hand.

why shouldn't a 35 year old sales assistant, do a weekend apprenticeship in a florist, with a view to starting a business from home.

I'm going to make the partition now infact

part of what i dislike is the uncertainty which makes it difficult to make decisions and plan. ie you don't know what sort of job you will get when you graduate so don't know how much you will have to pay back. And you also don't know how the government will change the goalposts once you graduate and in future years...so interest rates and payback criteria could be changed

I feel that we need to encourage part time or evening study or appenticeships rather than full time uni study. People need to update their skills constantly through out life.

I think is really sad that opportunities like apprenticeships are restricted to the under 25s. That is complete ageism and means that people who are in their forties or fifties who need to make a career change are trapped.

I hope the system has a chance to bed down. I find shocking the level of fees that are charged for some courses. I would like the unis to have some financial penalty when 80% of Mickey Mouse studies graduates faill to get a 21K job within 5 years of graduation.

Unis need to be made to take some of the risk, rather than the tax payer. At the moment it is in the interest of the unis to get as many bums on seats as possible.

Thanks dotnet. I doubt I'll be able to save anything meaningful in time for my daughter going to Uni.

I think the coalition (specifically the lib dems) completely ballsed up the way they introduced the new changes but like I said earlier, increased fees were almost inevitable no matter who was in charge.

The important thing to note though is not the overall size of debt but the way it's paid back. The way some people are carrying on it's as if you get the £50k debt in one lump sum. You don't. Repayments are linked to how much you earn. Certainly for lower earners they pay nothing. If you are around the level where you must repay, you actually pay LESS than you would now.

And as Cogito has pointed out, many people will simply find their debts wiped.

It will be a real shame for those kids like mine who've missed out on an education we took for granted but if you look abroad to other nations, most already are used to having to pay. I remember watching CNN reporting the first student riots and one comment from a "pundit" was that most American's would love the chance to pay so little for a Uni (college) education.

Stuff the students.

There are far too many students in this country, the whole idea that 50% of young people should have a degree was balls from the start, allowing polytechnics to become universities was balls from the start, the capitalist system is one of supply and demand, the majority of students are shameless capitalist, only interested in increasing their own wealth with promises of walking into 30k a year jobs when they leave uni, as such if they are to benefit via higher wages why the hell should the poor uneducated hard working people of this country subsidise their education?.

But for the majority the 30k+ job a dream, the encouragement of people to go into further education has meant that supply far outstrips demand, wages and opportunities diminish with the increasing numbers of uni students, for the most part the encouragement of the young to go into further education is a ploy from the government to keep the numbers of unemployed youths at The Job Centre down, it all so has had a detrimental effect on skilled trades with the lack of investment in apprenticeships and lack of universities teaching useful job skills, such as welding and video games programming, the games industry, has been crying for years that the youth in this country simply do not have the skills for the jobs.

I just feel that further study has to be incentivised - and there is nothing like the prospect of debt to make a student revalue studying - it is the culture of 'learn to earn' creeping into the UK and it is long overdue.

There are no spaces or opportunities for too many graduates. Why do we insist that everyone must have some university degree. It would be great if the cash used would be earmarked to make sure that there were alternative apprenticeships and career choices open to everybody.

It is not about exclusivity - it is more the fact that spending 4 years behind a university desk gaining NO appreciable or practical skills doesn't help.