There was a time the tuition fees were around £1,200, then they rose to around £3000, that was about a 150.000 % increase in tuition fee caps that the government decided on in 2004. That increase of £1800 was a institution guide of the maximum they could charge, however a lot of us has found that they charged the maximum. That could be because the academic institutions were underfunded or rival institutions were charging the maximum so they followed suit in order to compete.
These are some of the reasons i was informed about during my course rep training sessions and from it i deduced that if the fee caps were to rise again, the same trend will occur.
The national Union of students have been campaigning hard to make the system fairer for students one of the National Union of students’ strategic goals is:
We will secure a fairer funding system for students, ensuring further and higher education is accessible to all those who have the aspiration and capability
Following the determination of the Union and its members to uphold and carry out its aims the NUS has been lobbying and discussing with government the issues over tuition fees and funding and have been expressing, or conveying rather, the views of students up and down the country.
There is a fear that the proposed tuition fee cap rise to £7000 would would be severely detrimental to the educational system and would subsequently make it not an option to those who come from poorer backgrounds; further more the country is now in a recession with no clear sight of when we will see the light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel that caused me to spend less, by Asda value foods and hold back on buying myself an SLR camera as well as other materials used in various projects we have had. In addition, this year things have been so bad it has severely disrupted my work as well as mentally inducing a feeling of unhappiness. Even getting into LCC can be affected like when my oyster monthly ran out and i was low on money and was unable to pay for a renewal leaving me to scrape some money together for an hour long Bus journey from Greenwich to Elephant & Castle. I can imagine many of you have had similar money problems. I know someone who has multiple jobs, morning job, then LCC in afternoon then then an evening job! This could affect us directly if the government decides to implement the proposes. However not everyone may be affected, but if you intend to go onto a Ba either here at LCC or elsewhere you may have to pay the going rate which may or may not be the new £7000.
This is how it works, the following is just an example and the figures are not derived from our educational system. in a given year if the rate is £1000 for example those starting University will pay that fee. if for some reason the fee jumps to £2000 the next year that student that started the previous year will continue paying £1000 while any new student will pay the new fee. So in our system, using my own experience as an example, when i was in Loughborough University for two years i paid the £1200 tuition fee even though in my second year the fee rose to £3000. When i started my course at LCC I was required to pay the new £3000 tuition fee. Here’s when it will affect us moving onto the BA: Going onto the BA is seen technically as starting a new course and not continuing one hence for that year we would pay the going rate at that time which could be the current £3000 or a possible £7000.
In the news recently was the fact that “there has been a big increase in the number of university students in the UK applying for emergency hardship funds” – BBC. Also that, because of the recession, Jobs are harder to find for those students as everyone are clambering for the same jobs.
from BBC News: Gail Hardwick, employment manager at Leeds University Student Union, said: "Students who may have had jobs in the last calendar year returned in January to find their jobs don’t exist.
"For some students it’s absolutely critical that they work during term time. It’s the difference between them being able to complete their course or dropping out."
Because of the economic hardship, the jobs issue, the prospect of a future rise in fees and how it affects us all, i believed that this was a time to bring to your attention once again the stark truth about the cost of education. On the 3rd or September last year the NUS produced a report called Broke & Broken; it was the beginning of their campaign to change the educational funding system and served as a critique of the present funding system.
That report is here for all to read click to download:
Broke & broken report [PDF format]
Filed under: general, NUS, Politics, broke, broken, credit crunch, critique, education, fees, finance, government, hardship, HE, money, NUS, political, Politics, recession, students, tuition, uk, UNIVERSITY
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