Should student support be means tested?

The problem I had when I went to uni is that the amount you can borrow and the amount of tuition fee you pay was means tested as they assume that your parents will help with your fees/accommodation expenses.

My parents had got themselves into a debt problem at the time, so even though their salaries meant I could only borrow a certain amount, and I had to pay the maximum tuition fees, my parents were in no position to help me at all meaning I was penalised for my parents' debt.

I think everyone should be treated the same.
 
Rotty said:
should be the same for everyone
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I tend to agree.
Why should someone from a middle class family startoff their professional life with £30K fees debt, and someone doing the same course, with the same entry grades startoff with £0 fees debt?
I can't see how this makes any sence whatsoever, as one would assume the middle class family background has already made a greater tax contribution to the educational system.
 
It's a stuPid system at the moment and needs changing. Eg at 22 the loan/grant took into account my mothers earnings , why should my mother at that age be giving me money to live ?

I had to jump through hoops to prove she wasn't paying me money and it caused my grant to be six months late and a whole lot of stress thinking I wouldn't be able to afford the course

Even sillier is that my mum could have been earning 31k with 3 20-23 year olds to support and we would have got nothing but a family earning 29k with one 18 yr old to support would have got everything. I feel sorry for the people who fit in the middle
 
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Hikari Kisugi said:
I tend to agree.
Why should someone from a middle class family startoff their professional life with £30K fees debt, and someone doing the same course, with the same entry grades startoff with £0 fees debt?
I can't see how this makes any sence whatsoever, as one would assume the middle class family background has already made a greater tax contribution to the educational system.
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Who pays no fees ? Everyone pays fees afaik ! Even if your an orphan living in an alley
 
Rotty said:
should be the same for everyone
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This tbh... since your repayments are dependent on your personal circumstances after graduation - when you've presumably been living away from home for 3 or more years already.

Why should one young professional have less to pay back than another simply because 3 years ago his parents used to earn less. So long as everyone is entitled to the same loan to cover tuition and living costs then there should be no need to means test based on parental income.
 
^The issue there is theoretically the loan may be insufficient to cover tuition and living costs. So if grants are reabolished then arguably loans need to be increased.

As an aside one thing to bear in mind is that with 'over subscription' commonplace at universities there is maybe an argument to try and reduce the demand for places.... pricing people out of the market could be an option although ideally one would would prefer to see a different metric used for (dis)incentivising it. Or in other words try to decide which student/course combinations are giving us the best value and adjust accordingly.
 
A lot of unis also have funds available to help students out. Mine gave me money for two months rent earlier this year, just a bit of a hassle going through the process.

Also, means testing based on your parents' income for uni funds is a ****ing stupid system :p And I say that as someone who always got the maximum possible loan/grant.
 
Tikkabhuna said:
Every student can get the maximum loans. Its just the grant that's means tested.
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Erm no.

The Tuition Fees loan is whatever the university is charging - so everyone has their fees fully covered by it.

The Maintenance loan is means tested. Everyone receives 75% of it but those students whose parents' income is over an arbitrary number cannot get anymore, whereas students whose parents' income is below said arbitrary number can borrow upto 25% more.
A maximum (100%) loan is two different amounts for students living at home and students living away.

The 'Free Money'* (grant) is means tested on your parents' income.



* - Nothing is free in this world. It's the taxes of hard working people.
 
One thing that has annoyed me, freind on facebook has got a student hardship fund by claiming his parents have thrown him out for being gay.
He's recently booked a trip to amsterdam, constantly going out, just had a shopping trip at ikea, goes home quite often, works at morrisons. I'm gay myself before poeple start blabbing on, but Iam constantly in my overdraft, parents end up having to pay my rent for second half of year as SAAS doesn't even cover rental costs, yet he as the cheek and audacity to go out and do that!
 
University courses should be funded on how much the average graduate will earn i.e. we need engineers because they pay **** loads of tax throughout their working life. We need vets, we need dentists etc.

Stuff we don't need, like half of the Universities (as they are crap), art, history, geograhy, english and anything with 'ology at the end should not be funded at all.

Degree funding should have nothing to do with what your parents earn, it should be funded on only one thing, the need for that profession.
 
Higher education should definitely not means tested but should be given by way of ability. If the students from poor backgrounds are good, they'll still get the grants.

Why does what your parents earn have any effect on how much money you have available to you at University? Your parents might be earning £40,000, £50,000 or even £80,000. That doesn't mean they're going to give you any of it. They probably have their lifestyle adjusted to that level of income. If your parents earn at the higher end of those three figures, why should the student be disadvantaged just because their parents didn't plan money for their children's University?
 
Think others have mentioned it in here, but the people that Get the best grades, who go into a subject that they get good grades in - the top people who get the top grades need to have their fees paid for and/or living paid for, as long as they stay working for a UK company, that way we don't suffer a brain drain.

The lower down grade level wise the more you should pay.
 
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