Rising Fees

[Stu]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/5081668.stm

This was from a couple of days ago, but it seems to have gone completely missed on the sinner. Anyone know anything more about it, cause along with a lot of recent educational policies it has the potential to screw up a lot of peoples plans.

[ascii]

I know the union were running a campaign against this, but I'm not totally opposed to it.

In my ideal world, there would be no tuition fees for university, so on that basis I am opposed to any increases. I also agree with 'thin end of wedge' type arguments.

However, given that medical fees in England (Northern Ireland and Wales too as far as I know, but correct me if I'm wrong) will be £3000 from next year, I don't think it's that unfair to charge £2700 - giving a saving of £300 - for 'rest of UK students' to study medicine up North.

The Scottish Executive has a fixed pot of money to spend, and I'm not convinced its priority should be subsidising rest of UK students to study in Scotland, especially if they return to England/Ireland/Wales after graduating. I support a system that helped out med students from anywhere who agreed to stay and practise medicine in Scotland after graduation, as I think that would be a good use of the block grant.

[Mehmsy]

Hey - us non-EU foreigners have to shell out >£10k.

[hr]

http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37106593

[Ben Reilly]

The extra money from students coming from England will not be used for Scottish Universities. It will go into a pot to subsidise Scottish students going to English universities.

[exnihilo]

There's an enormous amount of simply shuffling money about in the education system at the moment - who'd have expected that from a half-assed devolution 'settlement'?

[Gealle]

Half-assed, maybe; but at least the worst burden on Scottish students is the endowment, and not up-front tuition fees.

[exnihilo]

The burden of the whole thing is on us all as tax-payers as billions upon billions are spent on schools which don't teach and university educations most don't need.

[OhhMy]

Quoting exnihilo from 12:52, 21st Jun 2006
The burden of the whole thing is on us all as tax-payers as billions upon billions are spent on schools which don't teach and university educations most don't need.

One could say that some one who does a subject such as Art History, or any arts subject who then goes on to work in 'the city' and never uses the degree its self (excluding the other skills one learns at university) could be considered as having a degree that they didn't need. If the market demands individuals with certain qualifications then the degree is needed. Elsewise one must question why some people do degrees at all and why having a degree seems to 'guarantee' better wages.

[The Unwilling]

Having looked at the options for courses at my local university (one converted from a polytechnic), it's astounding the number of ridiculous courses that are offered at some places, and this isn't me being all snobbish (well maybe in some cases a little bit), but courses leading to a degree in Football & Society??? How much money gets poured into things like that?

[Thalia]

To be fair, i think it would be quite interesting to look at the role of football in our society. It's almost a cultural obsession - people can be very tightly bound in the group that they've chosen. But then, i would say that that should be limited to part of a soc anth or psychology course rather than one all on it's own.

[hr]

The shadow proves the sunshine...