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SamuelRSmith on 25 November 2010
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Soleron said:
CrazyHorse said:
Soleron said:
CrazyHorse said:

 subsidising home students.


Not any more lol! $9000 in tuition fees is enough to fully fund a course.

Arrghhh, I was working in a building next to the protests at university yesterday, they even tried to storm it! Not sure what they hoped to achieve by occupying a building already full of university students!!

The problem with the rise in fees is that not all courses will be charging the same (depending on the level of cuts they face) and those which do need to charge the maximum may find their numbers significantly reduced because of that so I suspect a lot of the funding short fall may not be fully made up (but this is a whole other topic!!).

The courses which cost more to run (sciences) are also exactly the ones the government claims we need more of. So expect applicants for that to drop off steeper than arts.

The worst part, I feel, is that more prestigious universities will be restricted to those who are rich (or, bizarrely, the very poor who benefit from grants) because they will feel they can charge more. The middle class (which I will define as ~$35k-$60k household earnings) will be stuck.

For example I am at Cambridge, but if they raised it to £9000 I don't think my family could afford for me to go. And I'm certain Cambridge will charge the maximum based on their public statements about this.


This is something that, simply, I don't understand. My family isn't paying a penny towards my tuition fees, and they wouldn't do if they rose to £9,000. No matter what the tuition fees are, my family is no better or worse off. All of the debt is on my head (through Student Finance).

Rising tuition fees won't stop anyone from going to University if they take on the debt, themselves. Whether or not it's worthwhile taking on the debt is all dependant on what sort of career you are likely to get when you leave. As such, only the courses that result in high-paying jobs will reach the maximum level of tuition fees, and others will be offered at lower fees, or the course will be ended. It's just simple economics through the price mechanism.