Hmm
I think it's arguable that the general population should be paying for the higher education of elite intellectuals who might otherwise be tempted to emigrate to the USA, leaving the UK with the runts of the litter.
However, I don't think you'll find many people who think that funding a dance degree at a former polytechnic is a worthwhile allocation of tax revenues.
The expansion of higher education might have been a valid ambition, but in practice it's lead to a huge number of graduates with worthless degrees who would have been better served by apprenticeships or simply getting a job after leaving school.
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WeirdWeb, Fri 12 Nov 2010, 1:15,
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Well said...
Yes, I got a grant (i'm old), but it was soon reamed off me by the University who managed to figure out that charging precisely the same amount for renting me one room with a plywood plank for a bed and conditions that would have prisoners rioting would be acceptable.
Half the idiots at that "protest" yesterday are the product of a generation of a New Labour indoctrination process that leads the unintelligent to believe they have a "right" to everything being handed to them on a platter. Too think to pass an exam? we'll go to 100% coursework. Too lazy to do that properly? We'll keep letting you re-take until you do pass/get a grade you like the look of.
As a Science graduate, I saw thousands of pounds of funding going on to toss like "Media Studies" and other joke degrees so Tarquin and Jocasta could get a degree on 3 hours lectures a week, whilst hard sciences that will actually contribute to the bettering of society and industry (Chemistry, Physics and even Engineering) were dumbed-down or had next to no funding as the retarded illiterates were too scared to take the courses in case they were "difficult".
Frankly, I never saw my grant, I still had to work and take out loans and all this generation of spoilt brats have done is devalue what a degree is worth in the job marketplace as half the "graduates" nowadays can barely tie their shoelaces... twats.
(, Fri 12 Nov 2010, 14:57, Share, Reply)
Absolutely
As a recipient of a free education AND, by the sounds of it, a maintenance grant, you're in exactly the right position to be criticising people who not only pay thousands of pounds a year for what you got free, but also have no access to what kept you able to afford your pallet in a freezing box.
Gumby.
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Natt, Fri 12 Nov 2010, 16:20,
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So
"Yes, I got a grant (i'm old), but it was soon reamed off me by the University who managed to figure out that charging precisely the same amount for renting me one room with a plywood plank for a bed and conditions that would have prisoners rioting would be acceptable."
You neither paid tuition fees or rent out of your own pocket, that puts you about £7k a year better off than current students then.
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greedyostrich Cheese is evil! Cheddar is VOODOO!, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 0:36,
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Well said...(not)
I too am that old to get a grant for my education. Unlike you I did not simply head for the nearest hall of residence but got off my arse and found my own accomodation. As a result I lived on my grant during term time and found part time work in the holidays. However with the advent of universal property speculation from the Thatcher era onwards and the ME society, rents have gone through the roof and the number of things people see as essential for daily life have increased. Going to college has been made much more expensive as a result and one loses the opportunity to learn practical survival skills. Mind you these are not much use in a society that just says spend, spend, in order to control us by fear induced by indebtedness
(, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:16, Share, Reply)
I love it when people miss the point...
We have too many fucktards that are bring told they have a right to a degree, when a degree was, by definition supposed to be the preserve of the top few percent of the academic achievers. We are importing people with PHDs from Eastern Europe to empty the bins, because teenagers who can barely walk and talk without prompting are being told that anything less than a PhD is beneath them. Why fo' we need tuition fees? Because that jug-eared twat Blair decided that 50% of the population should be given a university education, despite this effectively negating the whole point of Universities - i.e the really academically bright people go there, whilst those not gifted in science or the arts should get vocational training, which is perfectly fine. Essentially he stated that half the population should be above average in intelligence. Thus proving he knows fuck all about Maths and also pressurising an academic environment that was geared to under half that capacity to double or triple resources required.
The net result? A degree is worth next to nothing in the job Market, universities cost too much for the government to run and we either turn students away or increase fees.
Remember that it was a LABOUR government in 1997 that decreed free higher education was unfair and that charging for it was somehow fair - so it became the preserve of those rich enough instead of bright enough to be there based on their talent.
Yes, I had a grant that paid for next to nothing. Oh, and I didn't get food, bills or anything else included in any if my residences, so I had various jobs trying to keep myself fed whilst also doing 20+ hours of lectures and 16 hours of lab experiments a week, so it wasn't like I wa on three hours study and as much beer as I could cope with - but of course, those sorts of degrees are under threat of being lost as the Tarquins and Samanthas are too thick/lazy to do that, so they fo' Media Studies or other timewaster courses.
Frankly, I still had over £10k of debt from loans I had to take out to pay for food, heat and light - so I agree that it's no hassle to pay it ba k - the rates are tiny and they have just raised the requirement level of when it starts being paid back. It's just a bunch of spoilt brats whining about maybe having to give something back toward funding their privileged existence.
(, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 22:56, Share, Reply)
intolerance
or rather, the hope of changing up 'society', alerting us hard-nose grinders and number-crunchers, to the plight of a less-luckily endowed mass of humanity- this hope is the reason the weight of your 'worthless' humanities courses and grads grows. So you see the possibility that we're all a bit more educated as a problem?
No. The problems, sir, begin with the amount of resources being flushed by my country's superrpower militaries, and the lockstep which leads your land into our wars, and worse- eg., IMF, 'illegal' crop interdictions. But these are "human problems", created by humans, not by limitations.
(, Tue 16 Nov 2010, 7:18, Share, Reply)