Anyone discouraged kids from university in light of tuition fee rises?

[Officedepot]

In light of uni fees now being £9k per year (so £27k for three year degree) plus living costs students starting uni now would be coming out with debt over £40k

Anyone actively discouraged kids from going to uni on this basis?

I can understand if they are going to a top uni to study medicine or law etc, but AIBU to suggest if they are going to a rubbish uni to do a pointless degree it should be discouraged.

I have lots of friends who did degrees at second rate unis in random subjects and are still earning a tiny amount in their early 30s.......

P13 Weekend Telegraph all about going to overseas universities.

And seeing DCs lumbered with debt, graduating with degrees in whatever whimsical subject took their fancy when they were 17 or 18, with no job prospects, is not very sad?

On top of that, educational policy in Germany varies from Land to Land, as it is a federal state.

Bollocks. Kids from my son's school have been doing it for years as they are all bilingual, and loads of the parents are French or German anyway, so it's not that big a deal. Only ignorant monolinguals would be so imperialist as to think England has some kind of monopoly on higher education. And Germany doesn't have one set of HE policies anyway, it's devolved to the different Laender with differential fees (free in some Laender, well under £1k in others). The idea that central Government would dictate HE policy would seem very strange to your average German. Salvo, you need to read the foreign news a bit more, not just the domestic stuff in the Daily Mail.

MrsSM has been here since Sept, amillionyears

Not to mention the fact that parents intending to send their students to UK universities are also engaged in second guessing government policy...

So she has, Ponders. No idea why she didnt pop up first time round.
She seems to have a history of not agreeing with BoffinMum.

BoffinMum, do your DC go to a private school?
And do you have any family links with Germany?

No, state comprehensive school and I am half German.

Ah, that explains why there wouldnt be too much of a problem to encourage them to go to Germany.

Well quite, they are keener than I am. But I like the idea of them being global citizens and exploring other countries. Very healthy. And the German system is less intense and febrile.

I have suggested Holland as well. Some courses are taught in English making it even easier.

I currently getting a part time ba paid for by grants. Im doing this to get experience and hope to do social work in september.

Im doing it as a mature student because

1. I didnt know what I wanted to do at 18
2. I couldnt afford to go at 18
3. They prefer older more experienced students.
4. I wanted to volunteer make sure of the are I wanted to get into.

Im lucky im in NI where the fees havent risen but I couldnt afford it without loans, grants and bursaries.

An interesting Guardian article on tuition fee refugees, highlighting the possibilities nearby in the EU.

mathanxiety, do you have family connections to the USA?

Re: studying abroad ("An interesting Guardian article on tuition fee refugees, highlighting the possibilities nearby in the EU.")

We looked into this for our daughter. We found a course she liked in the Netherlands, taught partly in English and with a buddying system with Dutch students for the parts taught in Dutch.

However, she wouldn't have been eligible for student loans from the UK. The UK administrations won't allow student loans for studying a whole degree course abroad. I've no idea why - I haven't been able to find any justification published anywhere.

We didn't have enough savings we could have used, couldn't have paid out of our income, and couldn't have afforded to borrow money at commercial rates to pay the 16,800 euros tuition fees for the 4 year course, and the approx 800 euros a month living costs.

If my daughter could have found a 32 hour a mouth job for 3 months before starting university, and continued to work 32 hours a month whilst there, she could have accessed some less expensive loans from the Dutch government, but she wasn't likely to get a job as she didn't speak fluent Dutch.

I know it's too late now, but in case other people are in patty's situation - a couple of people I know who studied abroad took a year out after A levels and spent it doing au pair work. You don't have to have much of the language as the idea is you're learning it, and you don't earn much but I can't imagine it's totally useless.

That's a good idea, LRD.

Nearly everyone in my family and extended family have degrees. Not that many of us have well-paid jobs.

When she's old enough I will help dd to do whatever she wants to do. This may or may not involve going to uni. It's her life, her career. It's my job to help her with whatever she wants to do.

I agree too.

Are the courses, say in Germany, taught in English?
I would have thought that, say, particularly with say a science subject, if it wasnt in English there would be no chance of keeping up.
Variations in accent alone, would make some courses that little bit harder.

x post
I was agreeing with LRD

Lots of science/maths students do degrees not in their own first language - my SIL is German and when she taught in Germany, she would have students from all over the place, so supervisors are used to it and there is quite good language lab help.

Lots of science/maths students over here (UK) aren't first-language English either, FWIW.

I would think it'd be harder in an essay-writing subject but not impossible at all.

Meant to say, sorry, in her bit of Germany no, they were taught in German. But Dutch universities use lots of English and so does Norway/Iceland.

Crikey. I wouldnt like to try it.
That might be beyond me and mine I think.

It didn't really get much more taxing

Did you not have to do modal logic?

Amillionyears, my DCs were all born there and are citizens. ExH is American.