Ed Milliband is the new leader of the UK Labour Party

[Scruff7]

Kasz216 said:

highwaystar101 said:

SamuelRSmith said:

As it currently stands, being well-off has put me on a down for starting Uni. People who come from families on low income are entitled to an extra £2k maintenance loan per year. Yet, I am not. Basically, the Government seems to think that people with wealthy families will have the family pay for them, mine won't.

Both of my parents moved out at 18, worked shit jobs, scraped by, didn't ask for any help from state, family, or friends, climbed the ladder, and are now in the highest tax bracket. They don't believe in living off assistance, £2k is roughly what I'd get if I work a part time job for a year whilst at Uni, and so £2k is only entitled to me if I get a job, I can't get it off my parents (hell, I won't even ask), people from lower income families get £2k in their pocket (at a inflation-rate loan) without having to work for it, I don't.

Personally, I agree with my parents' point-of-view... I just find it highly ironic that in the current system, I'm worse off because my family are of a higher income.

Funding for undergraduate education in the UK is just one of the most flawed things ever. Period. None of it makes any sense and most of the solutions politicians propose just seem to be geared to making it worse. Like raising tuition fees for better Universities (one idea which has been banded around by many people), surely it should be the other way round.

And the level of inequality is just staggering. Like you my parents tax bracket eliminated me from having any support, and they weren't going to pay for housing and living costs, etc. So I worked during the first year,and in the summers before second and third year I worked every hour I could and saved. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for support with education, but the system just seems set up to hinder certain people.

The raising tuition at better unversities isn't student oriented.

It's school oriented in trying to

A) Keep up their prestige

B) give other schools incentives to improve.

 

Can you guys not get student loans at all because of your standing, or is it just you can't get free tuition assistance. 

Do you guys even have free tuition assistance, with all the talk of loans it's been ominiously quiet about that.

I mean, I have friends that go to school, not even for anything in particular just because the government pays for them to go to school for free.

Quite honestly I could probably get the same arrangement.

It's split into different areas.When i went through Uni, you had to pay tuition fees of £1400 pey year (i think). that's very low as the government pays the other £12,000 or so. I think it's now more and you pay it after you've graduated out of your salary as a kind of tax which makes more sense since it reduces the burden on poorer families that couldn't afford to pay tuition fees up front.

If you are means tested and are from a poorer family (i think the household earns less than £12,000 per year), then you can get the tuition fees paid for by the Local Education Authority (your Council).

You can also apply for a student loan to help ends meet on living. Most people do this and that's also means tested. it worked out for me as £3600 per year (£1200 per term), which gets you by on cheap student accommodation rent and food - you are exempt from Council tax as a student which helps. You also get more if you are studying in London cos of the high living costs. I also had 2 part time jobs and a summer job, and a year in paid employment in my third year to help make ends meet.

If you have lots of money, you don't have to take the loan. I've known a few people in this boat, and it's very beneficial as you don't end up with £10,000 of debt after, which keeps on growing due to interest.

You then pay back your loan out of your salary to your Council as a % of your salary. I think it's about 5% of you salary or something so it takes years to pay back. you can pay back more if you want or delay repayments if you are struggling, but it does get interest at just over inflation rate, so it's worth paying off.