University Funding

[Xenia]

Sunday Times 15.8.10 front page: I can't work out what it's saying. For graduates it is suggesting higher earners would subsidise lower oness when they graduate.

1. Hike in fees beyond £3290 current leve.
2. Surcharge on higher earners.

Are they saying you wuold still as now have the choice of not taking out a student loan and thus avoid all this stuff (the position my older children have been in because of my wise career choices when I was younger which enable me to ensure that is so)?

Are you talking about the Graduate Tax? The theory being that rather than the existing loan (or not) set-up, graduates would pay an additional tax for the rest of their working lives (don't know the percentage) which would, in theory, be ring-fenced and put back into HE funding.

There are a fair few flaws to the plan IMO - have posted a question on the subject on the Labour Hustings thread.

No, I mean today's news which is that the Government is probably ditching the graduate tax and instead only higher earners will pay a bit more. "High earning graduates face a surcharge of up to 20% on their tuition fees". Lower earners would not reapy the ful amount charged for their courses.
It also says some universities may charge more than others - up to £7k pa

So it looks like if you take out the loan but only if you do and if you earn a lot then you pay all the cost back (but not a % tax). If you dont' take out the loan you don't pay it. If you take out the loan and are in low paid work for life then you don't pay all the costs back.

A huge lot better than the graduate tax.

It does sound fairer - will check it out.

The Sunday Times is only on line if you pay. People like I am who have paid for it for 30 years to be delivered by the newsagent don't get the on line edition, the most loyal Times readers there are left out in the cold.

You need a degree for almost any career these days. There are some badly paid graduate jobs which are worthwhile to society. For example many NHS jobs have a four year degree, yet are paid a pitance.

An NHS physio will not earn a lot, but if they work in the private sector then they can make quite a lot of money. Is it really fair that the private physio pays the same for their course?

We could ensure children train at 14 for jobs at 16 which really don't need a degree like typing jobs/ PA etc adn cut out pointless degrees.

The problem is trying to fund too many children at univesrity. 15% went when I went which was about right.

And we may get back there a bit with market forces. This year a good few have said no clearing places whatsoever. There are many more applicants than will get places. So in a sense market forces seem to be operating.

"We could ensure children train at 14 for jobs at 16 which really don't need a degree like typing jobs/ PA etc adn cut out pointless degrees."

I dread to think what its going to be like for schools forcing children to say on at school to 18. I would rather allow kids to leave school at 16, but generously fund evening courses to help them progress when they have grown up.

Many non academic children would be happier with this route, provided they had made the choice. Certainly the children where I work love their one day a week at college doing hair and beauty, building and plumbing, catering, childcare. I think it would be better if these children spent more days doing college courses.

Mickey mouse degrees are a waste of our children's time and the country's money. I even go as far as to say that many traditional degrees like Physics are a waste of time these days. Prehaps we need to be more ruthless and limit the number of chilren who go to uni.

I think we are this year if you read today's papers. 7 people will be after each one place available in clearing this year and plenty of places with no places in clearing available.

I am hoping to be able to get my ds through uni without loans, by funding him up front. Presumably, he wouldn't be hit either.

These schemes don't seem to allow for the possibility of a change of direction/career. what if after a year in law (and paying at the appropriate rate), someone decides to teach, and thus drops a lot in salary. Are they to pay for the initial degree, rather than what they are actually doing?

It's going to be complex whatever they come up with. It woudl be better though if it were that you only pay back what it cost rather than £1m in extra graduate tax because you earn £500m pa for a start.

Together 11 years. Not married.

if theb elow is true then he has repated what he sowed. Had he spent 12 hours a day chilcare and house cleaning (and he could have lost some weight in that process too and got some sacred bonding ) then our non sexist courts who required I paid my ex husbnd a lot of money would have given him a good chance as a home all day child caring father of children with a wife away working, a good chance a residence but if the below is true he wasn't around and thus the usual status quo is maintained.

"A source close to the family said, however, that de Bernieres had spent a great deal of time away from home before the split, travelling the country with a trio of female flautists, the Antonius Players.

He joined them in 2003, bringing in his mandolin and clarinet skills, as well as his novels and poetry, to create a combined musical and literary performance.

The group perform throughout the UK, with excursions to festivals in Ireland and Crete, playing classical music, ballads-folk songs and new tunes.

Their eclectic repertoire includes standards such as Greensleeves as well as Latin American ditties. Last year they made 37 *appearances, while this year there have been 21 so far.

Often de Bernieres and one of the group members, blonde Ilone Antonius- Jones, who is married with children, play recitals together in church and village halls. The pair met in the early 1990s at a comprehensive school in south-west London, where they were both supply teachers.

They lost touch, but bumped into each other seven years ago, when she invited him to join the group."

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1303280/Corelli-author-Louis-Berni-res-left-mother-children-walks-out.html#ixzz0wt0JcfBS