Most universities charging top fees

[emy72]

Article on BBC education front page, with a list of unis charging nearly all the top 9k or near enough.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12880840

I thought David Cameron said over and over again that this would be the exception............

Do they??? A small world . I dont live there but close. I've always liked names that nobody knows how to pronounce!

Its not a very complete list and mostly 'proper' universities so far ... except, is there really a university called Bishop Grossteste?

(reminds me of being told that a new university was nearly called City University of Newcastle upon Tyne till someone realised....)

Bishop Grosstesse ( or Bishop Grot as it is known) is primarily a teacher training centre in Lincoln. It is rather well regarded too!

adamschic I've been keeping my eye fairly fixed on this topic too. I think a lot of the universities are currently hammering out the details of exactly how much they can give and to who. All I've seen so far in terms of detailed published plans are from Oxford and Cambridge. There's a lot of subject specific help from individual universities too. Info from all universities must be available soon, the Year 12's are trying to work out what to do!

I saw on the BBC website that there is a worry about foreign language courses, in that they are usually four years, and it has yet to be decided if £9K will be applied to all four years. If this is the case then probably applications would plummet.

Those serious about engineering degrees have the same problem, and are charged for all 4 years

I don't know how it works with foreign unis, am I right in thinking that the fee loans structure wouldn't apply and you would have to actually find the money for the fees rather than take the loan and pay it back under the new terms?

Have to say I am looking at the SAT exam, and maybe seeing if US universities would suit my kids. DD1 seems much more suited to Ivy League/Liberal arts than UK Unis anyhow. Just investigating for DS too. Maybe DD2 will do Oxbridge, if we can afford it then.

One student at school has applied to Ivy League and is waiting for the results to come through in a couple of days. If he gets in he tells me that all hs fees ($55K he said?) will be paid. Much cheaper for him than taking up his Oxford place, even though he'll be a 2011 entrant not 2012.

But ref. MFL and Engineering, isn't there a differnce in that the third year of language degrees is spent abroad whilst engineers carry on getting taught?

Yellowstone, who will pay his fees?

(Bishop Fathead is a pretty funny name too! - not that this has any bearing on the standing of the institution, some of the oxbridge colleges are weird enough)

In both cases, you need to spend 4 years studying in order to have a reasonable chance of getting into your chosen career.

I assumed that the year abroad would be spent studying at an overseas uni? Is this not the case? If not, what do they do?

What's the deal with med school (and vets, isn't that a long course too?)

From what I've seen Ivy Leagues out of their endowements, on the whole help with fees for 60-80% or students. Often you don't start paying until parental income is more than $75000. Most also offer some help with finding jobs, even on campus jobs for overseas students.

For the year abroad, often students work overseas, often in schools.

With med school - you get a NHS bursary in the 4th year and in the last years you actually get a salary as a Junior Doctor (around 20K +).
Architecture students also do paid work placements for 2 of the years (although some "top" practices only offer internships that are virtually unpaid for the kudos of working there)

I agree with Gramercy that moving to Scotland may be a good deal - I have 4 DC all teens and £27K fee debt for each adds up to a lot of money. I think this disparity in how UK citizens are treated within the country is shocking (EU students can come and study for free in Scotland as they are treated as Scots).

In the US there are a lot of scholarships available as alumni of top unis donate a lot to these funds - but that doesn't happen here - although that is what the govt is aimimg for in the future. Lesser US unis do charge lower fees and have fewer scholarships.

adamschic I think he would get a huge bursary from the institution. I haven't pressed for details because we've talked more about his interviews and his chances of getting in. But his financial circumstances aren't dire but aren't flush either and he was clear the cheapest option would be for him to go to the US if offered a place. He is ridiculously talented though and I've no idea if the huge bursaries are based on financial cicumstances or academic merit or both. It seems that alumini endowments are huge over there. I'm an amateur on this because none of mine so far have applied to the US but DS2 might well want to if his costs get paid (and he does some work to pass his GCSE's....).

Frumpy I understood the cost differential to the home university was huge. I think some MFL students do attend a university in the country whose language they are studying, but aren't they usually assistants of sorts? Or else they get a job eg. bartender in their chosen country. Not an expert since none of mine are linguists, but I think the costs to the UK university are very different for a student staying in the UK and still being taught.

I know of one, a former poly, which is planning to charge the higher fees because, if it doesn't, it will look inferior!

This wasn't how the increased fees were 'spun' to the public. The unis were only supposed to charge the higher fees if they could show they were doing positive things to help poorer students. Yet they all seem to be planning to charge the highest they can without doing anything about their admissions policies.

They might say there is this or that bursary available but until they can demonstrate that the 2012 entry is more weighted towards students from disadvantaged backgrounds they surely haven't met that criteria.

Yellowstone - most US rich unis (eg. Ivy league types) are tending to offer finacial support even to foreigners on a needs blind basis. And the levels of parental income when you still receive help can be much higher than in the UK eg. $75, 000. They also operate a sliding scale, and if they think you can pay something, or you need more money for living expenses, they will help with finding jobs on campus.

However they are looking for someone who wants a "liberal arts education" as opposed to the UK desire for specialists. Also although Oxford an Cambridge say they are not interested in the extra curricula, the Ivy League openly say they might take someone less bright but more rounded.

You have to be careful considering US universities. While a few foreigners may be lucky enough to secure a generous scholarship and financial aid, this is rare.

We looked at US universities for DS1 and a good school there would have been significantly more expensive than the UK. We would have qualified for very good financial aid as we are US taxpayers with a very low AGI.

Well endowed colleges are having their fair share of troubles at the moment as more students require financial aid and the value of their investments have plummeted.

When thinking of US places, bear in mind that US families save for college in tax-efficient accounts from birth. Foreigners really can't just swan in with empty pockets and nothing to offer.

mummytime and merry I'm under no illusions about swanning in. I had thought 'needs blind' meant that the chances of being offered a place at Harvard etc. weren't affected by whether or not a student needed financial support. The young person I'm talking about has a huge amount to offer: he's an extraordinay boy. We're state school not independent and I know that well off parents are the ones who hitherto have been looking to the US. But it seems that some of these institutions are now keen on encouraging very bright young minds from the state sector in the UK and are prepared too help with the cost which is an interesting development for students from our school at least.