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The people in these think tanks, do they all have IQ's of 50?

How are you supposed to pay for fees, rent, food, books, bills, etc if you can't get loans or grants?
Middle class families hardly ever have cash like that sitting around.

50 is being generous.

So they'll raise tuition feels then price the middle class out of uni further by not giveing them a load to cover it?

Fan-bloody-tastic.
It's currently an unfare system, I've seen students from poor backgrounds get grants etc, and their parents still manage to buy them huge TV's for Christmas, the students themselves can buy all the books and have a good time.
I notice that fellow students who fall into a similar bracket to myself get less loan, no grants and our parents might pay for a weeks shopping if they come to visit us. We tend to be very selective with what books we buy and tend to cut back on nights out.

[LIFTED] the bastards

i come from a middle class family, my parants dont have much spare money as there still helping to repay my sisters student debts!!! and she did her masters 2 years ago.. god help me in 2 years

Seems the common thing now to do is declare bankrupcy after racking up a lot of student debts, especially for those on medical degrees etc.

I have got less than £2500 this coming year on a student loan as im living at home, would be around £3k

It doesn't really take all things into account, just the parental/student salary (despite my parents having had to help both my older sisters through university)

They closed the loophole a few years ago.

I'm from a working-class background. I have £20k of debt I might not be able to pay off until I'm 50 or 60 (bearing in mind I'd have to deal with other things like rent/mortgage, bills and family). Given they've since introduced top-up fees etc, there is no way a person from a working-class family would be able to afford £40k of debt doing a course like medicine.

If they're gonna cut the student loan for middle-classes, they should be able to 'buy' places at university like international students do.

They should just cut the number of places and courses and concentrate on the better unis. Realistically, how many surf science grads does the UK need? They could also stop making people go to uni to do courses for skills that people learn on the job, eg journalism.

But this is all based on the assumption that middle class parents will give their children bags of cash.

We are a middle class family, and my parents don't give me a penny. If I am living at home and working, then I have to pay a (admittedly small) rent. I certainly don't get hand-outs.

When I move into my house, they'll probably stock up the cupboards with food. They've donated their old sofa and washing machine. That's all brilliant, and I'm grateful. But it doesn't pay my rent or tuition fees, does it!!

It took me the best part of a decade to pay off my student debts. I came from a middle class family (parents both teachers + Volvo), but what my parents could afford to give me and how much it costs to live in this coutry just didn't match.

I had a grant for my first two years at uni, and tuition fees were paid. I still ended up in debt, despite working in the holidays. Most of this was due to the cost of housing. In a shared house I was paying 50 a week plus bills, which was double what the grant was. In those days, student overdrafts were interest free so I paid it all off by the time I was 25.

It's certain that with no grant, I would not have been allowed to go to uni. My parent did come up with about 500 for me when I was desperate one time, but there was no way they could afford more.

I do question how come so many people now stay in education until they're so old. We have a shortage of workers in the lower end of the market which is currently being filled by immigration. Thank god for the eastern Europeans, or else all staff would be too busy studying a PhD in Theatre Arts to do any work. The country would grind to a halt...

Christ, I sound like my dad

That 'think tank' can go and shove that idea so far up their [LIFTED] arses that they'll be puking up degrees!

Seriously.....[LIFTED]'s sake!!

Well i hope it is my german sheperd has an IQ of 60 apparently.

tosspots.

Cut courses, cut places.

Not everyone should have a right to go to University, degrees are ten a penny nowadays and not worth anything. Others are more predisposed to more vocational studies and this area should also be expanded.

Reduce numbers and bring back the grant system such as the one that was in place when a majority of the MPs and think tankers got their degrees.

If you're academically bright enough you go, if not you don't.

+1

Then you would have some apologist whining that its being unfair to little johnny, who althought is a thick as a bit of 2by4 must have the oppitunity to waste 3 years until their dream of being on Britains got talent comes true.

Okay, fair enough, but what about people who have incredible talent else where, say Art? Are you going to stop them going to university because they didn't get A's in Maths and Science?

I admit I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, and my GCSE's reflect that, but they were in subjects I didn't enjoy, when I got to college, I enjoyed the course I was doing, and I came out with good results. I don't agree with what you said there at all.


Okay, fair enough, people should have a certain level of intelligence to go to uni, and I agree, but saying people waste 3 years, waiting for the 'dream' to come true isn't very fair. I want to get to uni to be able to get further in life, I want the chance that my Mum never got, I want to be able to get a degree and do well in life.

But hey, God help us if you were ever in charge of the education system.