Students Protests - University Fees

[EggFriedRice]

I absolutely applaud the protests by young students against the rise in university fees, why should they put up with the blatant lies by the Liberal Democrats, I voted for them, I believed what they told me during the run up to the election, now I feel betrayed, like so many other voters, how could they say one thing and then do the opposite? I witnessed today a demonstration by ordinary young people who will be affected by the increase in university fees, I witnessed the heavy police presence, the batons ready to charge, the police filming ordinary young people who have been betrayed, I witnessed the sad state of the UK,

welfare state??
have you seen the cuts that are happening to very vunerable people?

theyve fucked me over good and proper lol

cutting the benefits i need then putting up fees!
surely its people like me they should be helping not screwing over?

Wonder if Nick Clegg still believes he's not a Tory.

Disclaimer - I am watching this from afar so trying to work out what is going on.

But how many of these violent protestors are actually students? Aren't most of them the ones who come out to make trouble whenever there's a large protest?

I have my own views on education and would like to see a complete overhaul of Higher Education in the UK. But these people I'm seeing on TV don't look like students to me. They look like thugs.....

Yes, I've seen the cuts - but we still have the NHS and the welfare system. More than can be said of other countries. I know what I'd rather have.

Excellent post Giddy.

Also, protestors are still, now (at 2310) being held on Westminster Bridge where they have been kettled since 3pm. The temperature is just one degree above freezing in Westminster (probably lower on the bridge). There is no threat of violence. They are essentially being punished for their protest. Shame on the coalition.

GiddyPickle - if you end up on a middling to low salary, not only do you pay nothing/not much back, you end up with more debt than when you started. My interest on my student loan currently beats my repayments by about £60 a year. It's more than likely I will never pay my student loan back.

I completely support the protest, but I vehemently disagree with the violence that some people seem intent on causing. It does nothing for the argument.

However, for the most part this is a group of society who are about to be slapped with a policy when they aren't even able to vote for their representative in the first place.

And I agree that it was only a matter of time before one group of our society had enough and started having a strop. Maybe more will follow and this government will realise how much they are pissing everyone off

Oh yeah and what's this new word "kettled"?

I think they should be glad that it's the UK police force they're dealing with, and not the riot police in some other countries.

Given what we've seen on the news tonight, the police appear to be very restrained.

I think we need to change the obsession with going to uni.

Education is not free, how would students like to pay for it?

Oh my gosh! Is that really the deal that you only start paying back AFTER your studies once you have a job and the repayment is dependant on that salary? Really is this how it is going to work?

Those who are saying the LibDems can't keep their promise because they didn't win the election are missing the point.

The pledge they signed was to vote against raising fees. The only cicumstances in which they could have envisaged fulfilling that pledge would be if they lost the election, because a LibDem government would not have proposed raising fees. So to say now that they can't honour the pledge because they lost is dishonest.

Giddy, I earn just over £15k, so that's the position I'm in (currently I think around £18k student loan from a 4 year course plus interest). It's affecting us being able to get a mortgage for a bigger house to raise a family in. I'm about to have childcare costs when I return to work, on top of the mortgage. Ok, the student loan is a tiny amount to pay each month, but that's no use to anyone if I can't ever pay it back.

Endeavour - the new repayment figure is £21k I think. Noone's going to be asking for £9k a year up front I hope

It was a silly to make the pledge, they could never keep it.

Talking of pledges what about the Tory pledge that you can pay £8500 and as if by magic you can have all your long term care paid for.

Getting back to the point, education is NOT free. How do students expect to pay for it? What do they consider is fair?

well said dancing :)

If it makes more student think twice about going to uni is that really such a bad thing?

Goodness Endeavour ... do you not think that a bloody huge 'My apologies for being patronizing and ill-informed' would be in order? You think the student protesters don't understand ... and you don't know that the money is paid back once graduates earn over the threshold?!

But.That.Is.The.Bloody.Point.

For what it's worth, my facebook is going nuts with people who've been protesting and posting to their phones all week - all very peaceful 'well, we're here waiting' kind of stuff. And they are intelligent people who've been discussing this issue for months. Quite a lot of us were discussing the same issues years before: how can the country fund HE, what should we students contribute and how? So don't call students ill-informed, please. A lot of us would also like to see a sharp reduction in numbers of students, too - we don't enjoy sharing classes with people who don't contribute, or don't want to be there.

Thanks Rachy

And well said RowdyDuck.

I worked blardy hard to be able to support myself through Uni, even with my parents contributing what they could to help in small ways.

Not everyone needs a degree, and not everyone is cut out for a degree. It would be nice if the previous government hadn't set their 50% with a degree figure, or whatever it was. It's just devalued the degree, and placed a huge financial burden on the institutions who have to provide the places for all those extra students.

Me too Giddy Sometimes the policy makers just don't think about how their new policies bounce around and impact each other.

Bedtime for me. And for that reason, I'm out

Well said dancing. We must stop this obsession with uni.

Thanks dancing. Night.