Universities push for even higher fees

Chris1712 · 17 Mar 2009 at 01:45

Can't find this discussed yet, I personally find this pretty outrageous as its already a huge amount of debt by the end of your degree.

BBC News said:
Many universities in England and Wales want a sharp increase in tuition fees, a survey by BBC News has concluded.

Two thirds of vice chancellors, speaking anonymously, said they needed to raise fees, suggesting levels of between £4,000 and £20,000 per year.

More than half of university heads want students to pay at least £5,000 per year or for there to be no upper limit.

The National Union of Students has warned of debts of £32,000 for students if fees rise to £7,000 per year.

Even with the current fee structure, I'm going to be up to about 30k (5 years of ~6k) of debt, let alone over doubling the tuition aswell.
IMO, its already on the high side of affordability and I would be much more reluctant to come if they were to climb as high as this report suggests. The lure of internships etc. was as big as uni for me anyway.

Thoughts?

Andelusion · 17 Mar 2009 at 01:47

Good god, that's horrendous. Maybe I'm not so unlucky for being a 'new system' student after all.

KaneStatton · 17 Mar 2009 at 01:47

Too many people applying for uni already,
good to cut the numbers down.

JonJ678 · 17 Mar 2009 at 01:47

As long as it remains loan supported, I don't mind. After writing off two years of a degree and starting over, I'm going to owe the SLC so much that it just doesn't register with me any more

Gackt · 17 Mar 2009 at 01:49

Yes, that's right, let's start young people with even more debt once they've finished their education. That sounds fair.

********* greedy ******* scumbags.

djbenjo · 17 Mar 2009 at 01:56

BBC said:
Many universities in England and Wales want a sharp increase in tuition fees, a survey by BBC News has concluded.

Many employees want a sharp rise in their wages.
Many managers want sharp rises in their budgets.
Many shareholders want sharp rises in their dividends.

Really? I would have never imagined.

Tweek_1984 · 17 Mar 2009 at 02:00

Wrong in so many ways. When did this country suddenly become an elitist nanny state?

doodah · 17 Mar 2009 at 02:14

We ran a 'Keep the Cap campaign recently - it seems a fair few don't realise the true extent of their huge impending debt

djbenjo · 17 Mar 2009 at 02:48

Tweek_1984 said:
Wrong in so many ways. When did this country suddenly become an elitist nanny state?

edit: nm cba

m0r94n · 17 Mar 2009 at 02:59

KaneStatton said:
Too many people applying for uni already,
good to cut the numbers down.

Just cut down on the amount of "joke" courses then. My Uni has several (I'm on one) and all it does is build up the number of students here. If Universities went back to subjects that actually mattered applications would most likely be lower but with courses fit for any Tom, Dick or Harry everyone's going to apply.

Steeps · 17 Mar 2009 at 03:11

It's a BBC survey asking what universities want to do, of course they'd ask for more money if they could.

Azagoth · 17 Mar 2009 at 03:22

Am I lucky that when I graduated I was only around £1.5K in debt?

Aod · 17 Mar 2009 at 05:39

m0r94n said:
Just cut down on the amount of "joke" courses then. My Uni has several (I'm on one) and all it does is build up the number of students here. If Universities went back to subjects that actually mattered applications would most likely be lower but with courses fit for any Tom, Dick or Harry everyone's going to apply.

but at this point, reducing student-intake would just reduce the fee's that the uni's are earning, meaning they'd be even MORE likely to request/demand higher fees.

titchard · 17 Mar 2009 at 07:18

KaneStatton said:
Too many people applying for uni already,
good to cut the numbers down.

The numbers should be cut down due to your academic achievements, the bar should be raised there - not because you plain can't afford to go.

Rich

MattandJet · 17 Mar 2009 at 08:13

Its the silly soft degrees that give University its image now. Wasn't there something on the news months back about a Uni offering a degree in being a clown? :confused:

craptakular · 17 Mar 2009 at 08:15

Degrees are pretty worthless now, every man and his dog has one. Mine was a total waste of money.

Dunks · 17 Mar 2009 at 08:19

Oxy said:
Degrees are pretty worthless now, every man and his dog has one. Mine was a total waste of money.

Well do a degree worth doing.

Also, <3 Scotland.

semi-pro waster · 17 Mar 2009 at 08:22

KaneStatton said:
Too many people applying for uni already,
good to cut the numbers down.

But that doesn't mean the best will necessarily go (which is surely what you want if it is a meritocratic aim you've got rather than an elitest one), it means that it will be the preserve of the wealthy and the few who can get scholarships so if anything we'll be taking a retrograde step in terms of the quality of applicants.

Another option for universities if they can't raise the fees for UK students is to allow more students in from foreign countries, particularly from outwith the EU. Abertay has a large proportion of Asian students now because they can charge much higher fees apparantly - I only pick on there because I've spoken to a few about it, I'm sure many other universities do the same.

[TW]Fox · 17 Mar 2009 at 08:27

Tweek_1984 said:
Wrong in so many ways. When did this country suddenly become an elitist nanny state?

In what way is that 'nanny state' :confused:

Duke · 17 Mar 2009 at 08:36

I expect these sort of fees are fine for those that take 'proper' degrees and get a decent job (and pay packet) at the end rather than all the pointless ones.