Tuition Fees

This week the Government in England has announced that Universities will be able to charge students up to £9000 in tuition fees to attend their University and get a degree. This is the latest change to University costs and funding over the last twenty years or so. It just seems there is no end to the spiraling costs of attending University.

The first attack on Higher Education was when the grant system was taken away, this forces students to take out loans and overdrafts to cover their costs. This however was still affordable as the Student Loans Company gave out loans which you only paid back at a small rate when you were earning a high figure and tuition fees were relatively low.

After this we had Top-Up fees which lead to some universities increasing the cost of a degree by raising tuition fees. This added to the recent recession then made it even harder for students to afford to go to University. Now to hear that Universities will be able to charge £9000 must send shivers down the spine of any prospective student and this could only be the beginning.

Universities have evolved over the year and are now more business driven than ever with course places really turning in to supply and demand. Currently there are more people applying for University than there are places which means Universities can afford to bump their prices and can make more money than they would by opening more places and courses for everyone.

I think society and education are to blame for this current demand for University places which has lead to the rise in costs. I think money needs to be invested in showing people that there are other successful roots than University because if you did this the value of a degree would go up for people who do one and you would have less unemployed young adults with a mountain of debt to pay back.

Don’t get me wrong I am proud of my degree but only because it has helped get where I wanted to go in life. In today’s world with the spiraling cost and the decrease in value of a degree I am not sure if I would do one. I just think it is the madness that the value of something can go down but the price can go up, to me in any other business as a customer which the students are in this situation you wouldn’t buy it so I don’t know why so many people are.

You can share your thoughts by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=839


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Student Loans

In many cities and towns across the UK over the last week you will have noticed that its that time of year again as students descend on University for Freshers Week and to start their term. This year there has been a record number of students applying for University and getting placed so there will be even more of them wondering around your local area.

However due to the record uptake and the recession it has caused problems with student funding with many students still waiting to receive their allocated student loan. Without student loans many people would be unable to afford to go to University and it is causing many problems and stress for students up and down the land. Some students don’t even know yet how much they will be receiving in payments so can’t even budget yet as they have no clue how much they will be entitled to.

The University year doesn’t get delayed because of students not getting student loans so students have been forced to try and get money from other areas whilst they wait for the money to come in. Some are getting loans from high street banks, some are having to get jobs and some are having to borrow from friends and family. These solutions are only going to add to their long-term debt or affect their ability to achieve on their course.

Universities still expect their fees, landlords still expect their rent and other things have to be paid for including food, bills, books and all other imaginable essential living items regardless of whether your student loan has come in or not. This means that some people will leave University in more debt than they should do or even worse still have to leave the course because they can’t afford to be on it without the student loan.

Many of the current MP’s got their University education for free so its about time they did something to help put pressure on the loan companies to sort this out or find a way to deal with the problem as if it isn’t rectified it could lead to a brain drain from University with high achieving students being forced to quit their course. If left any longer this problem will have unfair affect on students from poorer backgrounds, those who don’t have friends or family who can lend them money, or savings they can dip in to. Students from wealthier backgrounds may be able to deal with the situation and keep on going but University should be for everyone regardless of their financial situation.

Have you been caught up in the Student loans problem? If so we would like to hear what you think and you can share your views by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=780

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Summer Jobs

It has been tradition for many years in the UK for young people to find summer job during their summer holiday from either School, College or University. With the current jobs market this tradition is under threat as the number of summer jobs have significantly decreased and the amount of people applying for them has increased.

It’s not just young people on summer breaks who are now applying for these jobs its older people to who can’t find work and will take anything for a bit of money until they can find something more permanent. With the financial decline it will also means that more people had to fund their way through University as their parents may not have the funds to help them. This means more students applying for jobs including those that a few years ago may not have had to.

Summer jobs were normally low skilled jobs in the tourism, retail or seasonal trade. However with the current unemployment problems people with top notch CV’s, qualifications and experience are applying for these jobs making the competition even harder for students. With more applicants applying for vacancies employers can be more picky about who they bring in. Sometimes a recommendation from a friend use to be enough to get you a job somewhere but now even friends who work in places are having problems getting their other friends in.

As well as summer jobs there is unpaid work experience and internships over the summer period but now that students need money they can’t afford to do unpaid work and now there are lots of unemployed people doing work experience and internships just to get some more experience and contacts to boost their CV’s in this competitive market.

So after a hard slog all year in education young people have to start battling out over the summer as well.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

The benefits of the Credit Crunch

Now I know I have written a lot of blogs lately on the credit crunch but there were a couple of interesting stories this week which caught my attention. Now most talk about the current economic climate is normally from the angle of doom and gloom but the stories I am going to discuss offer hope.

The first story to catch my eye was a report I read saying that University applications are quite significantly up this year with many people sighting the credit crunch as the reason. Young people seem to be concerned about the lack of jobs and job security at the moment so are deciding to spend some time in University hoping the economic climate is better when they graduate.

Now I am not saying that University is for everyone but it is great to see young people really thinking about their future and what the best route for them is. In a time of economic downturn some said applicants would be put off University as in these times they may have found it hard to come up with or justify the tuition fees so I am glad the University system seems to be surviving these tough times. That’s the thing which is overlooked a lot by the media as it is not only the corporate world which affected by the downturn.

The other story I read was a bit of publicity for a film coming out at the Cinema called “Shopaholic” now I haven’t seen the film so can’t comment on the quality of it but I thought the film was apt for this period. In a time where we need to be watching what we spend and our finances it is great to see a film which deals with a real problem for many people. Regardless of the way they film portrays the issue it is great to see it talked about on the news and by the general public.


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Getting the right start – School selection

Over the last couple of weeks the news that has been revolving around the educational world and some of then national headlines has been the selection process of parents selecting a school for their child. According to news today one in five parents didn’t get their child in to their first choice school. Now I know every parent wants the best for their child but my parents never got the chance to select my school, I just went to my nearest school and got a quite adequate education.

When did this first come in to place that parents could choose? I am all for parents taking an active role in their child’s development but the question I have is how can someone know where a child is going to learn and develop the best? Yes you can look at schools and see which have the best facilities and which fair the best in league tables but there may be schools which have less facilities or that don’t fair so highly in league tables but are more suited for your child’s development. It may be at a school lower down the league table that there may be an inspirational teacher that gets your child enthused in a subject or they may learn more by having to make do with not the best text books or equipment.

On top of all of this there are other factors which aren’t measurable like the development of personal and social skills which happen at schools. Going to school is not just about grades it is about developing and growing as a person who is ready for the world after school. Like I have had said in previous blogs a more important and measurable league table for schools would be to compare every school on what jobs their pupils ending up going to do after they finished education.

Now I’m not judging parents here who have to place their children at schools which aren’t their nearest because their nearest is full. Remember though if you do send your child to a school further away when there are local schools available you have to factor in the lost time through travelling that may affect their ability to perform and develop as well as the affects that moving them out of their social circle and putting them in to a new one will have whether positive or negative.

If each child had to go to their nearest school it would in my opinion improve the overall standard of schools and remove elitism in education and in society. Some of the world’s greatest world changers went to some of the most so called deprived schools. A pupil shouldn’t be judged by the school that they go to but on their own abilities. It’s like with league tables parents put so much importance on looking at the league table which encompasses every student at the school when really they are and should only be worried about their child’s education not everyone else’s.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com