A sad day in London today

[alex]

I am currently student due to graduate in June. I have two younger brothers in university and one that would like to go. I agree too many people go to university, but I do not agree with the fee increases.

First of all universities are going to see up to 80% cuts in funding, which will be ‘substituted’ by the fees increases. However, I’ve been talking to members high up in the university who say that the increased fees will not cover the cuts. Therefore the net effect is that universities have less funding.

Second, fees will be paid back to the government when graduates can be afforded, hence when incomes reach a certain amount. In this time interest will be charged and it will affect our credit ratings. I’m going to leave university with over 20k debt to my name, my brother will leave with almost 40k including the maintenance loans etc. In a time when younger people cannot get onto the property ladder this will be crippling. I was taking to a bank manager who came into university to talk about starting up businesses and personal finance and he said that we would find it extremely difficult with the student debt hanging over us.

I feel the Mickey mouse subjects like ‘star trek studies’ should be dropped, as simple as that. Then alternatives should be introduced to build up vocations, after all university is not for everyone, yet my school’s sole performance aims were based on acceptance to uni.

Finally I’d like to say that the 'protests’ were a minority and many students have lobbied parliament and protested peacefully.

 

[mally]

All scarves and balaclava's/masks/head gear should be seized as they get into the protest area's, good thing is, alot of the aggressors will be getting visits over the next few weeks when they least expect it from the arm of the law. The courts need to support the police with prosecutions.

 

[websaway]

The most precious thing we posess in our day to day lives is our democratic way of life. I feel humbled when I think of the millions who have given their lives for our freedom.... freedom to vote, freedom to peacefully protest, freedom to say what we think, freedom to work if and when we choose, freedom to educate ourselves, to follow our religions and to achieve our ambitions. The anarchists who sadly infiltrate our day to day activities with no other agenda than to incite violence for violence sake are a threat to us all and to the democratic way of life from which we all derive so much pleasure. This is not a new occurance and will continue to rear it's ugly head whenever the window of opportunity opens to it.

 

[Ashton]

The 'rioters' have ruined what could have been an effective non-violent protest. Now everyone is focused on the damage, the punishment and the response to it. Not to what was trying to be achieved in the first place.

I am against the raise in fee's and whilst many think that 'they are studying medicine / law and will be able to afford it' I don't think that's the point - they will have this debt hanging over them for years to come, making them unable to pay for property etc.

I understand that my generation has to pay for the baby boom, however I would prefer if it was split over the next few generations, or raised gradually as opposed to crushing our generation with debt etc.

The fact is, nearly everyone I speak to my in my generation feel's they are and want to leave this country. I know I will.

 

[mally]

My g/f has 50K+ of student debt, studying medicine and thats on the current system. Her family aren't rich or middleclass but are working class. she accepts that part of her salary will be paying off her student debts for quite alot of years to come.. (She done pharmacy first decided she didn't like counting pills and went back to uni to be a doc) - Good to see someone though do well from her own merits and not due to handouts from rich parents

 

[rob]

If you look around the globe its not a big issue.

I also want to know where these protests were when Labour brought the fees in originally.

NUS fronting the protests, and its leader is a paid up member of the Labour party. The bloke before him was 'independent' when in post, and is now a Labour councillor.

Perhaps thats my answer right there.

 

[jasman]

In perspective it wasn't a huge amount of violence, not like the riots in Paris when they get upset about something. Who knows, the troublemakers could have been planted there so that attention was taken off the unpopular issue of increasing fees, and onto "the naughty students".

Far more important than a few hooligans causing trouble for a few hours is the greater issue that decisions like this are made in Parliament time and time again which are against the majority of the public's wishes, simply because the politicians don't properly represent the people. Too many of them go with whatever the whip tells them, because they are worried their careers will be stifled otherwise, or because their real allegiance is with the establishment.

The name of the game is to get people into a level of debt from a young age, which is unlikely to be paid back. Then they're on the treadmill. Previous generations were brought up to be prudent with their finances. They used to save up for things. They knew how much money they had because they used cash, instead of bank cards where most people don't really know how much is in their account.

By the time most people are close to paying back their student debt, they have been working for years, are conditioned to think having debt is normal and just part of life, and probably have a bunch of new debts for their car, mortgage etc.

The debt keeps the population as economic slaves who have to keep working full time just to meet their outgoings, so they don't have enough time to do too much thinking, so they don't get in the way of 'important people'. It also makes the banks vast fortunes in interest.

This decision about university fees is a double-edged sword. It will magnify the burden of debt on those who do go to university, and it will ensure that a much larger segment of society remains uneducated. Both effects benefit the elite because they will make huge profits from the extra debt interest, and the threat posed to their stanglehold by an educated middle class demanding reforms, will be dramtically reduced.

 

[Edwin]

Far more important than a few hooligans causing trouble for a few hours is the greater issue that decisions like this are made in Parliament time and time again which are against the majority of the public's wishes, simply because the politicians don't properly represent the people.

But the people are frequently WRONG! Getting the general public to agree welfare cuts or fee increases is like expecting turkeys to vote for Christmas. There's nothing undemocratic about not going along with impossible ideas.

For example, if the idea was put forward that every person in the UK should be given £1,000,000 you'd have 99.99% popular support, but the government wouldn't be undemocratic to shoot the idea down, they'd be RIGHT.

 

[GreyWing]

But the people are frequently WRONG! Getting the general public to agree welfare cuts or fee increases is like expecting turkeys to vote for Christmas. There's nothing undemocratic about not going along with impossible ideas.

What was highlighted in a recent programme on Channel 4, 70%+ of the UK people over 18 now work for a Government funded organisation. Higher than most Eastern European communist countries of the mid 80's.

Gets to a point, where like you say nobody is going to vote themselves out of a job and this country is on a one way ticket to Mugabe printing money for the fun of it land, oops we are already doing that aren't we.

 

[monaghan]

My g/f has 50K+ of student debt, studying medicine and thats on the current system.

These are the sort of students we should be funding through uni (with a caveat that they do work for the NHS on graduation or they pay it back )

 

[GreyWing]

These are the sort of students we should be funding through uni (with a caveat that they do work for the NHS on graduation or they pay it back )

I don't see why they don't. the armed forces are the same, they train you up and spend cash doing so. You have a return of service, if you don't return the service then you have to repay the training before you can leave.

Sometimes depending on your qualification, it can be an absolute fortune and much more than 50k.

 

[jasman]

If university education leads to significantly higher income on average then the government will be getting much more in income tax revenue from graduates. That will more than cover the cost of funding universities.

But then people wouldn't be burdened with so much debt and the banks wouldn't get the extra £billions in interest they now will so the establishment has come up with this plan. Keep in mind that all those people voting for raising fees got their university education fully paid for and even got student grants on top.