Students compare themselves to starving Ethiopians

[mr boombastic]

550Hep said:

It is official they are so dumb it is mostly beyond words, I have a couple of relatives in uni right now and one in particular is very vocal on this and I am risking a proper family falling out as I am about to tell him what a workshy utter imbecile he truly is!

Go for it!

Every single student the media interview, seems as thick as st.

[FourWheelDrift]

Northumbria University? That's Newcastle Polytechnic to those of us who don't really care.

Some good responses on here as well - http://order-order.com/2010/11/30/do-they-know-the...

[Martial Arts Man]

Dixie68 said:

dandarez said:

A picture tells a thousand words.
But let's just use a few words:

There is a vast chasm of difference between Famine Relief and Bladder Relief.

I'm shocked they spelled "your" correctly!

Edited by Dixie68 on Tuesday 30th November 22:51

50/50 innit

[Mrs OwenK]

The whole situation is utterly hilarious, and I really do feel for Clegg et al when they keep having to make announcements trying to say, without being offensive, "please actually read the fecking proposals before you embarass yourselves with more protests".

Honestly. Yes it's more money. But you don't have to pay a single penny until you're earning a pretty good wage - and even then, in such small quantities that you'll never even notice.

Maybe they could start explaining that it's like buying a sofa from DFS - perhaps that will get through a bit better?


edit: Apologies - my wife's just got a PH account and still getting used to having to check I'm logged in as the right person..! - OwenK

Edited by Mrs OwenK on Wednesday 1st December 10:17

[Tsippy]

TVR Moneypit said:

Whoever BugsyFTO is, all I can say is

Edited by Tsippy on Wednesday 1st December 11:21

[paulrockliffe]

Mrs OwenK said:

But you don't have to pay a single penny until you're earning a pretty good wage - and even then, in such small quantities that you'll never even notice.

I'm not supporting any of this, but bear in mind that if you don't pay anything back for a few years, the size of the capital will only grow due to interest. If you're earning £21k and paying back £7 a week I think Clegg said yesterday, you're not even covering the interest. So if you get to the end of your days earning below £30k, you'll be paying about a grand a year or so for most of your working life, yet still not making an impact on the capital. All figures very approximate.

The answer is blindingly obvious though; don't go to uni as a default position. Especially if you're thick as pig-st and have no work ethic.

[DonkeyApple]

paulrockliffe said:

Mrs OwenK said:

But you don't have to pay a single penny until you're earning a pretty good wage - and even then, in such small quantities that you'll never even notice.

I'm not supporting any of this, but bear in mind that if you don't pay anything back for a few years, the size of the capital will only grow due to interest. If you're earning £21k and paying back £7 a week I think Clegg said yesterday, you're not even covering the interest. So if you get to the end of your days earning below £30k, you'll be paying about a grand a year or so for most of your working life, yet still not making an impact on the capital. All figures very approximate.

The answer is blindingly obvious though; don't go to uni as a default position. Especially if you're thick as pig-st and have no work ethic.

True but if you are earning more than £21k then you would be an idiot to pay back as little as £7 a week. And as you have gone to university and have a degree, you are very clearly not an idiot

[fin racer]

while I agree that students have a "right" to protest, I dont believe going to university is a god-given "right". It should be seen as a privelege.

As such you need to pay for this opportunity.

Part of me regrets not going to uni, but coming from a very working-class background, the money simply was not available to allow me to do that.
While I have bettered myself (and continue to do so) I think a little sense of perspective is needed from some of these young people (christ, I sound like my dad!)

It is of course a cliche these days, but the "school of hard knocks/university of life" philosophy still carries weight I reckon, and while I want the absolute best for my little son, I want him to get there through his own endeavours, not because mummy and daddy paid for him to pickle his liver for 3 years...

[otolith]

We should calculate how many university places we are willing to fully fund and then have some kind of public examination system at 18 whereby the brightest students get the fully funded places and the rest get a fking job. We'd need an examination system that didn't give nearly 30% of the candidates A grades, though.

[Tsippy]

otolith said:

We should calculate how many university places we are willing to fully fund and then have some kind of public examination system at 18 whereby the brightest students get the fully funded places and the rest get a fking job. We'd need an examination system that didn't give nearly 30% of the candidates A grades, though.

Although there'd be a lot of non-job uni staff unemployed too, don't think they'd cope in a real job

[xr287]

Just to add some balance. I am a student and these protestors make me cringe. Especially when they trot out the we can't afford it line. It makes them seem even stupider when you realise they can't even understand the changes.

Although I'm from Scotland so don't even pay fees *yay!* I really don't understand what they are on about. You don't pay a penny till you graduate. Then you pay back a small proportion of your earnings over £21k a year and even then theres tiers of interest rates applied to the loan depending on earnings.

I would happily pay £6k a year for my degree as I think it is worth it in the long run. It also annoys me they always quote the £9,000 a year price when in reality barely anywhere will charge this and if they do they will have to provide a load of scholarship places to encourage poorer but bright students to apply. Which doesn't make sense anyway because it doesn't matter what you have before you start because you only pay based on future earnings.

To quote someone else on a PH thread "What part of we don't have any money left don't they understand!?!?"

Why don't they go and trash the Labour HQ in retaliation for fking up the country rather than the Conservatives who are doing their best to rebuild it?

[Funk]

I think it IS unfair that Scottish students don't have to pay anything. Is it the same for the Welsh? If we're all paying into the same pot (UK PLC) then it seems only fair to level the playing field when it comes to who gets what.

[BoRED S2upid]

Funk said:

I think it IS unfair that Scottish students don't have to pay anything. Is it the same for the Welsh? If we're all paying into the same pot (UK PLC) then it seems only fair to level the playing field when it comes to who gets what.

The scots don't pay a bean. NI is capped at £3200 and now so is Wales (I think the English used to pay £3200 until this hike up to £9000 was introduced.

Trouble is we (Welsh) have devolved powers so we can decide what we want to focus on. Finally living in Wales is paying off, there isn't much else to benefit from, sheep, mountains and low tuition fees.

[DonkeyApple]

Parrot of Doom said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRtEbVJZod8

Classic. More of an own goal that the greenie advert with people exploding.

This is our future, people. Students who think that being forced to repay a loan once they earn over £21,000 is somehow similar to the plight of starving Ethiopians.

Someone should send this link to the media now there are appropriate responses to it.

[Andy Zarse]

Thinforth and Horseapple (ee-awww ) have had comments removed by Youtube. Wonder what was so offensive?

There's some great comments on there, I wonder what the dimwitted students feel about being so denigrated, and will it make them think again about their selfish stance? There's been no further replies after the barrage of abuse!

[anonymous-user]

Tsippy said:

have some kind of public examination system at 18 whereby the brightest students get the fully funded places and the rest get a fking job. We'd need an examination system that didn't give nearly 30% of the candidates A grades, though.

Like "PROPER" 'A' Levels you mean?

[DonkeyApple]

garyhun said:

Tsippy said:

have some kind of public examination system at 18 whereby the brightest students get the fully funded places and the rest get a fking job. We'd need an examination system that didn't give nearly 30% of the candidates A grades, though.

Like "PROPER" 'A' Levels you mean?

I think the courses are fine but we need to step away from this 'everyone must be a winner' ethic and simply only give As to the top 10% each year etc.

That way when you look at someone's qualifications you can understand their value in relationship to that year of exams.

[otolith]

garyhun said:

otolith said:

have some kind of public examination system at 18 whereby the brightest students get the fully funded places and the rest get a fking job. We'd need an examination system that didn't give nearly 30% of the candidates A grades, though.

Like "PROPER" 'A' Levels you mean?

You may well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[Rude-boy]

garyhun said:

Tsippy said:

have some kind of public examination system at 18 whereby the brightest students get the fully funded places and the rest get a fking job. We'd need an examination system that didn't give nearly 30% of the candidates A grades, though.

Like "PROPER" 'A' Levels you mean?

That was my thought!

I was lucky in that the first 3 years of my uni was paid for by the state, although they laughed at any sort of maintenance grant. So I worked my way through and managed to save a little. The next 2 years, each of which cost not much less than £6k in fees, I worked harder to pay for, despite working an, almost realistic, 10am to 5pm day at uni 5 days a week.

Okay so my folks were able to chip in a little but to be honest that just made me a bit more comfortable and able to 'splash out' on better food than packets of mixed veg from Iceland and better beer than 8 Ace.

Even though I feel I was better prepared for the real world than many of my friends it was still almost like I was suffering from a mild form of PTSD when I started work full time.

A basic education to read, write and learn some life skills is, IMO in the 1st World, a right we should work hard to ensure will always exist. Any more than that, and certainly degree level education should be based on merit and should not be free. The fact that it has been free has devalued it. To be blunt, too many people don't realise just how bloody lucky they have been and are, and now the gravy boat has run dry.

[anonymous-user]

Funk said:

I think it IS unfair that Scottish students don't have to pay anything. Is it the same for the Welsh? If we're all paying into the same pot (UK PLC) then it seems only fair to level the playing field when it comes to who gets what.

Yesterday the Welsh Assembly Gov't announced that students from Wales won't have to pay the extra, even if they study in England or NI then WAG will pay the difference in fees.