What are the benifits of Higher Education?

rick_chasey

W1 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

.

That might change with the fees. They may now wonder if you're just poor.

Ah, that old argument again.

Given that you pay fees back after uni, and when you're earning, they won't wonder if "you're just poor" at all. However they may wonder if you're a bit better able to judge the merits of something to you personally rather than just following the crowd.

Let's take a look at the figures for this years' applications, versus last year.

For the first time, UCAS has looked at the poorest applicants to see how numbers have changed. UCAS says the data shows that for the poorest 20% of the population

In England the application rate for this group has decreased by 2.5 percentage points. This is against a trend of annual increases since 2006 of between 0.5 and 3.0 percent each year

For the rest of the population, there had been increases in those applying at 19 instead of 18. Not for this group.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog ... verty#poor

So it certainly has had an effect.

£30k is still £30k, whether you pay for it today or tomorrow (after all the added interest). Try getting a loan on a low income combined with £30k odd worth of debt still to pay off.

Greg T

Rick Chasey wrote:

Try getting a loan on a low income combined with £30k odd worth of debt still to pay off.

That's what people need when they have borrowed money and are on low incomes - more debt...

That's why we are in this mess.

rjsterry

Greg T wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Try getting a loan on a low income combined with £30k odd worth of debt still to pay off.

That's what people need when they have borrowed money and are on low incomes - more debt...

That's why we are in this mess.

Oddly enough that was the argument used against the increase in tuition fees - that loaning students large amounts of money that many of them will never pay back, due their earnings not rising above the repayment threshold, would actually be more expensive than just funding the fees directly.

Paulie W

Rick Chasey wrote:

W1 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

.

That might change with the fees. They may now wonder if you're just poor.

Ah, that old argument again.

Given that you pay fees back after uni, and when you're earning, they won't wonder if "you're just poor" at all. However they may wonder if you're a bit better able to judge the merits of something to you personally rather than just following the crowd.

Let's take a look at the figures for this years' applications, versus last year.

For the first time, UCAS has looked at the poorest applicants to see how numbers have changed. UCAS says the data shows that for the poorest 20% of the population

In England the application rate for this group has decreased by 2.5 percentage points. This is against a trend of annual increases since 2006 of between 0.5 and 3.0 percent each year

For the rest of the population, there had been increases in those applying at 19 instead of 18. Not for this group.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog ... verty#poor

So it certainly has had an effect.

£30k is still £30k, whether you pay for it today or tomorrow (after all the added interest). Try getting a loan on a low income combined with £30k odd worth of debt still to pay off.

It would be interesting to look at the figures for other groups too: I suspect that the whole widening participation agenda that was so significant under Labour is going to be completely dead in the water.

rick_chasey

I worked for the widening participation team at Cambridge Uni for a few months and their focus was very much on kids at primary and secondary schools in disadvantaged areas, rather than the next year of potential uni students, so I doubt the impact of cuts to their agenda will be immediately noticed, at least, not in area where I worked.

Paulie W

Rick Chasey wrote:

I worked for the widening participation team at Cambridge Uni for a few months and their focus was very much on kids at primary and secondary schools in disadvantaged areas, rather than the next year of potential uni students, so I doubt the impact of cuts to their agenda will be immediately noticed, at least, not in area where I worked.

My point is that the work undertaken to convince people from certain demographics that University was an option open to them will have been undone - we wont have to wait to see that happen.