Government stuffing young people again, student loans

[Binjob118]

Great day to bury the news that from next year student loans will be repayed over 40 years instead of 30. This makes a massive difference. Hate this government and Tony bloody Blair for stopping free tuition. Of course, won't affect all the rich kids who never take out the loan. This on top of impossibility of young people ever being able to buy a home makes me want to scream. Totally screwed. Certainly don't think IABU!!

@fallfallfall

well university is not free in the usa, or canada. what western nations offer free? aussie, new zealand?

All across the Europan continent governments manage to offer university education for a tiny fraction of what Anglophone countries' universities charge. And for similar shares of the population as get degrees in the UK, in some cases larger ones.

It may be true that some people might be better off not going to university in the UK while degrees are so expensive. But fundamentally, driving access to higher education back down is an elitist, cynical move.

Full disclosure, I've taught at universities in Canada, the UK, Hungary and Belgium, and a subject that some people on here would consider pointless, or at least exotic.

Public opinion in the UK is far more contemptuous of higher education, and the humanities in particular, than anywhere else I know. I blame the class system and the social antagonisms it fosters - but that is a whole different conversation.

Well yes we know that but I'm not sure the solution is making young people pay more

Why are so many graduates not earning enough currently to pay the loans back?

Wages are crap.

I took out a student loan to do a PGCE. Not only will I never finish paying the loan back on a teacher’s salary, I am also eligible for child tax credit. I am working for the State, educating the State’s children in State schools and yet the State deems its teachers not worthy of a decent wage.

It's a loan, it should be paid back.

It's not a freebie to attend university and I say that as some who did 6 years

Why are so many of the population prepared to accept the crap wages

The maximum loan term has increased from 30 to 40 years - if the degree they were doing is worthwhile then it should be paid off long before then. I paid mine off in 8 years. I am forced to take graduates into my teams, the vast majority have poor reading and writing skills and struggle to understand basic instructions. They will never progress to the level they should be achieving and probably shouldn’t be at university in the first place.

Thank god my dc have EU passports, honestly I would encourage any young person who has the means to look for opportunity elsewhere.

@leopooh

Thank god my dc have EU passports, honestly I would encourage any young person who has the means to look for opportunity elsewhere.

Even without an EU passport it is perfectly possible to find courses taught in English at European universities for a fraction of the cost of those in the UK.

@fallfallfall

well university is not free in the usa, or canada. what western nations offer free? aussie, new zealand?

Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland. There are western countries apart from the English speaking ones, you know?

Employers have been complaining for years that graduates are not properly equipped to join the workforce. There is a real disconnect between what education provides and what is actually needed.

How about private sector companies stepping in to fund specific degrees alongside vocational training. Degrees with less practical value will not be funded.

Extremely able students who choose to study more esoteric subjects, as well as those who will work in the public sector could still receive grants.

@jgw1 great

I don’t know where they got their data but no one I know ever paid that low of tuition in the US!! We pay $40K/ US a Year for our son’s university
And I was thanking my lucky stars he got accepted there as other 4 year University’s were $60K, 80K! His 4 year will cost $160K not including any extras.

I agree with your posts Parsley. We should all pay for education because we will all benefit from having a larger number of educated people in the workforce and having a larger number of educated people in society. I’m struggling to find any room for disputing that view.

Those who took loans in the late 90s will be paying them for well over 40 years. There’s no equality at all. This deal is still better than what some people have got landed with.

I went to a grammar school and yet not everyone went to Uni after 6th form. Many of my peers went on to "graduate" schemes in banking, retail management, accountancy, nursing etc that never required a degree back then. Polys and FE colleges also covered a huge number of more vocational based courses. I read yesterday that something like 47% of children will now go to University. This is ridiculous. It's just not necessary for many jobs. Practical, on the job training or apprenticeships are much more appropriate. The whole thing needs overhauling.

@Crimesean

But who should pay for uni then? It's pretty unfair that Joe Taxpayer has to pay for the education of graduates who will either go on to massively out-earn him, OR who will piss about for 3 years, get a pointless degree from somewhere shite, and then still end up doing some non-graduate-level role that doesn't enrich society.

We don't need more graduates - we need fewer, and for only the brightest to go to university (and for the less bright - they can jolly well pay for it themselves, not the taxpayer).

This is such a smallminded view.

Why are some people determined to keep everyone else backwards, just because they themselves are not well-educated?

@JohnNutLips how much did you borrow and when did you pay it back
My ds will come out with about £50000 of debt after 3 years and with interest even a good salary will take many years

England is falling so far behind Scotland, it is ridiculous. English kids are the hardest done by in the UK now, thanks to fucking Tory voters.

@CouldIhaveaword yet many of these employers don't want fo take on apprenticeships or youngsters and bring them up through the ranks either
They want it all done for them with no effort
Years ago many companies took on school leavers who then worked way up
My friend went straight to a bank at 16 and eventually became a bank manager on average grades

• yet many of these employers don't want fo take on apprenticeships or youngsters and bring them up through the ranks either They want it all done for them with no effort*

exactly

When I went to university, it was considered to be a higher education for those who excelled. It was an educatory achievement for a smaller section of the population. I come from a working class family and I had a student loan, which I'm still paying off.

However. University has done a complete 180 in the last 10 years or so and it is now accessible to those with average grades. You can get into uni with C grades for goodness sake, which wasn't possible at all when I went.

The number of University students, as a result, has vastly increased. It is completely impossible for uni education to be funded by the taxpayer. And i strongly disagree it should.

I pursued my degree to get the best job possible. And I'm more than happy to pay the student loan I've accumulated back. I currently pay 350 a month, I don't have long at all left to pay but as far as I'm concerned it was my decision to undertake a degree so I should pay. Not the general public.

The problem, in my opinion, of making uni so accessible is that it becomes an expectation of the many, rather than the few. I'm sorry but I don't believe that uni should be a free for all. You would be simply spending tax payer money on lots of people who obtain degrees and then don't do anything useful with them.

Perhaps parents should be more financially responsible and prepare for the idea their child might go to uni? My DD has a uni fund we started when she was born. My SD is the same. She is just about to get access to hers as she starts in September.

@labyrinthlaziness

England is falling so far behind Scotland, it is ridiculous. English kids are the hardest done by in the UK now, thanks to fucking Tory voters.

It is always fun explaining to English students why they have to pay to go to uni in Scotland, but their European friends do not.

@Frankola

When I went to university, it was considered to be a higher education for those who excelled. It was an educatory achievement for a smaller section of the population. I come from a working class family and I had a student loan, which I'm still paying off.

However. University has done a complete 180 in the last 10 years or so and it is now accessible to those with average grades. You can get into uni with C grades for goodness sake, which wasn't possible at all when I went.

The number of University students, as a result, has vastly increased. It is completely impossible for uni education to be funded by the taxpayer. And i strongly disagree it should.

I pursued my degree to get the best job possible. And I'm more than happy to pay the student loan I've accumulated back. I currently pay 350 a month, I don't have long at all left to pay but as far as I'm concerned it was my decision to undertake a degree so I should pay. Not the general public.

The problem, in my opinion, of making uni so accessible is that it becomes an expectation of the many, rather than the few. I'm sorry but I don't believe that uni should be a free for all. You would be simply spending tax payer money on lots of people who obtain degrees and then don't do anything useful with them.

Perhaps parents should be more financially responsible and prepare for the idea their child might go to uni? My DD has a uni fund we started when she was born. My SD is the same. She is just about to get access to hers as she starts in September.

You can get into uni with C grades for goodness sake, which wasn't possible at all when I went Either you know this is bullshit, in which case you are lying deliberately, or you are just very ill-informed.

Of course people went to Uni with C grades in the good old days. There were fewer places overall - but places were offered on C grades and lower.

You can get into uni with C grades for goodness sake, which wasn't possible at all when I went
You could go to a Poly or college and they got grants too

I pursued my degree to get the best job possible. And I'm more than happy to pay the student loan I've accumulated back
Tuition fees weren't as high when you went as they've tripled in the last 10 years and become the highest in the world in England. Accommodation was also more affordable.

[quote worriedatthemoment]@CouldIhaveaword yet many of these employers don't want fo take on apprenticeships or youngsters and bring them up through the ranks either
They want it all done for them with no effort
Years ago many companies took on school leavers who then worked way up
My friend went straight to a bank at 16 and eventually became a bank manager on average grades [/quote]
You're right. And now the taxpayer carries the cost while the employers take the benefit.