BB FANS

Website urges students to take action against fees


An online campaign started in "sheer desperation" is calling for potential students to use their power as consumers and boycott top universities, in the hope this will force the government to scrap tuition fees.

Faced with the introduction of top-up fees in 2006, the group behind the website http://www.stuffyourloans.co.uk suggests that potential students should think twice before applying to university.

From next year, students will see the reintroduction of maintenance grants and bursaries, under a new system which the campaigners say should be fully reversed.

"Some of those who voted for the abolition of grants and the introduction of tuition fees and then top-up fees went to university. Those politicians got grants and didn't have to pay any fees. It is the ultimate hypocrisy," a statement on the website reads.

According to the website, a dramatic drop in university applications is the only thing that will make the authorities take note. Stuffyourloans suggests that if students choose to go to university, they apply to one in Scotland or Wales, and ask that people not apply to universities which belong to the Russell group, the top research-led institutions.

"We would ask that all applicants do not apply to any of the Russell group of universities that is actively lobbying for higher tuition fees. As people do not go there they will lose money. As they lose money they will learn their lesson. Basically you are using your power as a consumer."

Michael Sterling, the vice-chancellor of Birmingham University and the chairman of the Russell group, has defended the right to raise fees, claiming: "A degree from a Russell group university adds considerably to a graduate's lifetime earning potential".

Barry Taylor, the communications and marketing director at Bristol University, a member of the Russell group, said: "Almost everyone realises that the £3,000 fee will ease - rather than solve - universities' difficulties; talk of boycotts will help no one".

The site is branded with the words "We won't pay your loans back" and encourages students to refuse to pay back their loans, in a "concerted campaign of non-payment".

However, Sushant Varma, the website's press officer, has conceded that it is "logistically impossible to refuse to repay your loan, because loans repayments are taken directly out of your salary."

The Student Loans Company has pointed out that anyone defaulting on loans payments will face a legal sanction, something that Dr Varma says is possible. "In theory you could face a legal sanction if you could find some way of non-repayment".

The site has been branded as "irresponsible" by the higher education minister, Bill Rammell, and has also been condemned by the National Union of Students (NUS).

Julian Nicholds, the NUS vice-president of education, said: "NUS believes in the principle of free education and is vehemently opposed to tuition and top-up fees. Despite this, we believe education is of immense value to the individual, that higher education exposes students to a wealth of educational, social and cultural experience, and that therefore students should not be put off university by fees.

"Suggesting that individuals shouldn't enter higher education is not an effective way of campaigning against fees and will simply serve to jeopardise the opportunity of many students to benefit from studying. In addition, NUS would not condone behaviour that encourages graduates to refrain from repaying their loans". GUARDIAN

I say 'stuff all those media studies' students.

Either they can write with passion for a subject, are creative, and will make a career of it...or they won't ! Spending 3 or 4 years in class room is a waste of time and money.

The same applies for a long list of subject, and I'm shy to argue that most Psychology students are just wasting their time too. What is the point of having 250,000 graduates of psychology, when only a few thousand will actually actively apply what they have learnt?

To expect the state to fund courses which add nothing to the general benefit of all is dumb. In the meantime, we'll just have more student whining, ministers claiming that funds are limited..and we need to endorse charging.

Calrissian:

Yea, they can get jobs instead and do day realese and night classes instead to get the qualifications they need.

Jeez .. the student pubs shops and clubs are a massive business in my city, the uni`s have invaded our town centre and is taking over.

So lets take some of this money this spotty lushes have and make them pay for their education rather than expecting some poor 16 year old who just got his first full time job paying taxes so that some other oykl can sit scratching his arse while failing his degree in social sexoligy

here, here

or is it hear, hear?

should've went to uni

your a nut hippo

Unfortunately that route doesn't exist for a lot of students.For instance,when I left school you did not need a formal degree to teach primary school(The primary school cert in education was enough).Nursing and just about every other proffession allied to medicine was done by working 4 days a week and studying one full day and two eves a week.In many ways I consider I was lucky to do my degree that way as I was able to live at home and earn money AND get my degree.The fact that all these professions are now degree entry has caused numerous problems in the workplace.Graduates join the payroll think they are superior to their senior colleagues and above taking orders.I have friends who nurse who tell me the number of newly qualified nurses that refuse to change a bed pan beggars belief.They often lack basisc skills that wuold have been picked up with on the job training.Indeed I know a newly qualified nurse who had the opposite problem.She didnt want to go to uni as she felt academically challenged...she just wanted to learn and work.I think there are increasing numbers of young people who are disillusioned with the whole system.My 14 yr old and her friends are all pretty academic,hard working children....but very few of them WANT to go to uni for the experience.They would rather the opportunities that were available a generation ago.
And as for the problems caused by universal debt for a whole generation??How can the housing market sustain itself....apart from landlords letting out to the 35million students we will have in future years.

BTW...read in the telegrph today you can do a B.Sc in football!!!!!!!!!!!1

well, the whole topic of fees and bursaries is actually keeping me in employment believe it or not!

I have a mixed opinion on the subject. On the one hand I am against fees. There's no way I could've gone to uni as I just wouldn't have been able to afford it. However, anyone who's eligible will have access to bursaries and scholarships to subsidise their fees. Some higher education institutions (HEIs) offer additional payments to those with better grades or complete each term (an incentive to continue studying instead of dropping out).

But then I'm also against those students who think the taxpayers should fund their social lives.

Students should expect the taxpayer to help with certain expenses, such as accommodation in all expensive places (and NOT just London FFS, f*****g pissed off with London-centric politics of our country), books (to a maximum amount, say £200/year, where students may have to prove they still have the books by the end of the course and haven't just bought and then sold them to claim expenses), and any necessary tools and equipment, again up to a certain amount. The HEIs should be able to provide some idea of the expenses that can be accrued by each student.

Education is, on the whole, an investment. People always read about unemployed graduates but there are by far more unemployed non-graduates. Nearly everyone I work with has a degree or a Masters, and let's face it, we're all earning sh*t loads of money (and paying sh*t loads of tax), so there you go, bollox to anyone who says a university education isn't worth it . You'll always get the odd example of someone who left school at 16 and who's done well, you're bound to.

You two must be students ex or other wise cause of instead of writting point of view you ve wrtten a smegging thesis instead,,

if its alright with you i wont read it just watch it when it comes out ion DVD

would some one tell me if its here here or feckin hear hear

who gives a **** about bloody students anyhoo

I do. I need to complete my degree then go onto Aberdeen to do my PGCE: and all because I want to spend my life teaching kids in secondary.

~ignores the rest of the thread because its too early to argue~

Amaunet it was half three in the afternoon

Hippo - hear hear. (that's what it is)

Half 3? Pftt, it was only a wee while after Diagnosis Murder on my day off, thus it was early.

it's neither. it's 'ear ear'