Should student support be means tested?

I don't see why it needs to be means tested at all, it's already a loan and giving out grants just encourages those who get it to drink it.
 
I think the means tested is a scam. Everyone who seems to get the full grant either have separated parents (and the other parent who they don't live with seems to send plenty of cash through) or self-employed parents who alter the books. They're constantly out getting wasted, whereas a student from a typical family without separated parents get screwed and barely have enough money and have to strictly budget if they even have a chance of not going into their overdraft, which is impossible when your overpriced accommodation only leaves you with something like £15 a week for food, and other expenses.
 
Rotty said:
should be the same for everyone
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Agreed. Sod all this means-tested rubbish, lets have some equality in this country.


On a tangent... I was at the Soton open day with my brother last week. They put up the slide with the fees, loans, and the means-tested money they give some students (upto a few £k IIRC). Why don't they just not bother giving out free money to some people and just use the money saved to lower fees for everyone?
 
It's means tested becuase different people from different backgrounds can have more parent support than others. Although it is a stupid system as often families earning over around £36k~ (I think) threshhold have less spare cash than people earning far less. It is all circumstancial, which is the case for me.

I think you should be able to choose how much you get, obviously keeping a cieling in place as is now. I can't remember what the highest loan possible is for a student to recieve, I think it may be around £5k a year (not including fees).

My loan doesn't even cover my accomodation costs. My sister got a huge loan due to my mum being a single parent at the time and not earning huge amounts. It's an absolute joke.
 
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Grants should be means tested, loans should be the same (more for London), as you have to pay it back anyway so borrowing more means nothing.
 
Support should be means tested yes, as it currently stands people who don't need it are given thousands a year unnecessarily, even loans that are paid back cost the country because that money being spent on alcohol or dumped in a savings account making the person interest could be spent on much more important things.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Grants should be means tested, loans should be the same (more for London), as you have to pay it back anyway so borrowing more means nothing.
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Exactly, I wish I could borrow more to live comfortably and I'll be paying it back anyway. It annoys me, my girlfriend gets the full loan and grant despite coming from a wealthy family than me because her mother cares for her grandmother. She has the nerve to complain to me that she only has £250 to last her a few weeks until her £700 bursary comes in. I have £220 roughly to last me until 27th March... and I have a £275 deposit to pay for my house next year.

How is that fair?
 
Grants should be intelligence tested, smarter people should get a free ride, stupid people should have to pay if they want to waste lecturers time.
 
I really think that students should be able to loan any grants they are not entitled too under the current system (or at least a proportion of). It is the cheapest debt to pay off I'll ever have, and I'd rather have more debts with the student loans company than using my overdraft as I am currently.
 
The issue with means testing is that just because you have well off parents doesn't mean they give you any money.

You could have rich parents and end up less well off whilst at uni than someone with much poorer parents.
 
I think that it should be means tested. Could be supplemented by scholarships etc, etc.

Also should depend on future employability. Eg: Somebody likely to get a 1st from cambridge/ or someone likely to get a 2:2 from Oxford Brookes.
 
In addition to my previous point.

Larger grants should be offered on courses that the country needs. All tax payer money should be spent on something that benefits the country in some way.

(not sure how to justify the dole but i'm working on that)
 
RickST said:
In addition to my previous point.

Larger grants should be offered on courses that the country needs. All tax payer money should be spent on something that benefits the country in some way.

(not sure how to justify the dole but i'm working on that)
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Agreed. More valuable and required courses such as medicine, engineering etc should have bonus grants and things awarded.
 
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