to feel sad that 3yo dd might never be able to achieve her potential due to tuition fees?

[bytheMoonlight]

I look at dd, who is due to start nursery in January and wonder what is going to happen if one day she decides she wants a career that means going to university.

I feel so upset that her chances are being blighted before she has even entered education. We could offer her little financial support and the thought of her leaving with all that debt is beyond comprehension and would not qualify for help.

I feel so sad about this.

I am sick and tired of this stupidity over tuition fees. If you earn well as a result of a university education, then you contribute to it in retrospect. What's unfair about that? Why "poor" students are going to get some of their fees God only knows. Why should my children pay for their education and others not, simply because their parents happened to be poorer when they attended the course? A maintenance grant would be much more use.

Today's students and those in the future should be grateful they don't have the previous system of student loans. I am now, finally, earning enough to pay back my student loans from 13 years ago. As of next April I start repayments of £100 a month to repay within 5 years. A flat rate, no sliding scale according to earnings, and no chance to stop repayments should (God forbid) I lose my job over those 5 years.

Applauds gaelicsheep

gaelic and you think you've got problems, imagine what the students who are subject to this are going to have. Think you have contradicted yourself there because your debt must to a fraction of what it would be if you start in 2012.

Rubbish. They will only pay a small percentage of their earnings over £21k. It's a storm in a teacup.

christmaseve - No, because the students subject to this will only pay back proportionate to their income, don't have a time limit on how long to pay back and if their income goes down so do their payments. Which is admittedly what I thought happened now as well.

But I don't see how it is a problem??? For them to be paying a significant amount back they have to be earning a good salary.

If they don't earn, they don't pay.

What sort of loan is it Gaelic?

I simply don't understand the OP. There will be money available to borrow which only has to be paid back if you are earning above a certain level.
yes it's not as good as getting it all free but it won't stop people from going to uni.

I am far more concerned about the axeing of EMA.

gaelicsheep - How are your payments calulated? The site I found said 9% of salary over 15k was the current system.

That is what happens now. My loans are the from the system that replaced the maintenance grant.

And presumably the overall amount they pay back will be less than the increased earnings they get as part as having a degree.

Unless the degree does not get them increased earning power so...

Yes Seth that is a much more pressing real time concern that will actually stop people from accessing education.

gaelicsheep - Ah I see - I don't think that system is changing from whatever it happens to be now.

I could borrow up to £2500 in a year, less in the final year IIRC. I could defer repayments while my gross income (including CTC rather bizarrely) was under something like £2400 a month. That was never a problem before this job! Once repayments kick in the whole lot must be paid within 5 years. I graduated in 1999.

YABU & your negative attitude is more of a danger to your DD's potential at this stage. She is only 3 FFS & there is a long way to go between 3 & any potential tuition fee issues.

Buck up, work on changing your attitude and focus on bring her up to have the best mind & positive self belief you can.

I want to do this course. I wonder if I could persuade dh to fund me.....?

It's the wrong solution to the wrong problem, and yes I'm worried about my young children, that they'll opt for a medium sized debt in order to work in a call centre with an over inflated opinion of it's self.

As graduates, DH & I find that the risk takers amongst our peers - media, arts, politics are the ones from secure family wealth. The rest of us took the lower risk path and have the duller, steady far less well paid jobs.

Back in 1990 I decided against going to Scotland despite the fantasic course offered by Edinborough because of the four year courses rather then three years down south. I still regret that but at the time that extra year for someone like me seemed greedy and selfish.

Phone your MP or email him, it might make a difference and at least you feel that you've spoken up.

I agree it's the wrong solution to the wrong problem. The problem is that too many young people have been going to university, encouraged by the previous Govt. They need to cut the number of places I'm afraid. But unfortunately Pandora's Box has been opened. You need a degree to do just about anything and I doubt that can ever change now.

if anything, parental attitude to student debt is what would hold back their children, not the debt itself....

a graduate with a degree that helped them get somewhere knows it is a worthwhile investment. someone whose education did them no favours is less likely to think that way.

''You need a degree to do just about anything and I doubt that can ever change now.''

I sincerely hope it does change and I think it probably will - but it will take a long time - a longer time frame than we are looking at for today's children.

EdgarAllenSnow - I think the whole "poor people don't know the value of education" argument is very patronising.

It's not an issue for you now OP there will be three potential government changes before your DD gets to that stage (if she is clever enough and needs a degree for her career, let's not forget that). So yes your worries indicate YABU.

I'm worried that DS won't even be alive by the time he is university age - but that is me BU on this thread.

Acinonyx/Gaelicsheep - I disagree. If you cut the supply of graduates, employers will find ways to train the workers who are available to the level they require.

But that's my point - it's training that's required in so many cases, not some generic degree from a second rate university.

Yes, but I disagree that it's not easily reversible.