Bit of a hoo-haa down in london

[oxford_fan]

If someome offered me the chance to improve my career...and pay the training fee back at £7 a week at £21,000 a year i wouldn,t grumble...chance would be a fine thing.

You would be paying off your student loan until retirement at those rates! and that is without considering the interest, which is compound

student finance allows loads of people who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford further education to go to uni, but its also burdening them, and many others, with debt for decades

[leefer]

Thats life...pay up front and there is no interest..
Fact is you are better off now than you were under labour for 12 years.....no protests then.
Just shows how selfish people are....voting for a party on just one principle..that being no fees,or so they thought.

[ghanimah]

It's not that black & white though.  Most commentators agree that the poll tax riots were a certainly a contributing factor to her downfall (as was Europe).  The beginning of the end, maybe.

Not black & white issue I agree but the riots' contribution was overrated. Mainly because riots usually end up galvanising the ruling classes unless you have the army and Police onside, and by John Major's admission what panicked the Tories the most was the effect of the poll tax on their own supporters.

Thatcher would have survived the riots on their own, but she couldn't survive the massive europe splits in her party.

[reeves4england]

Thats life...pay up front and there is no interest..
Fact is you are better off now than you were under labour for 12 years.....no protests then.
Just shows how selfish people are....voting for a party on just one principle..that being no fees,or so they thought.

Sorry if I'm being thick here, but who is better off and how?

[RobertT]

People keep making it seem like those who don't go to Uni manage to stay debt free!!!!  Most people these days will be paying some sort of debt off until retirement, at least this is controlled debt and acts a trade off.

I think the states responsibility for eduction must be to provide a bsaic level for all to ensure the country has the basic skills to build on.  Anything beyond that has to be based on both apptitiude and desire - and paid for individually.  If it was upfront fees I could see the problem if you want all in society to be equally able to access education.

What I don't get with all this though, is that we expect people who have gone to work to fund any extra education but get worked up if people who go from one education establishment to another have to do the same?  I have to spend upwards of £4k per course to progress my own qualifications, which I can do myself or convince a company to sponsor it by showing what future benefit they can get from me.

[ron dodgers]

universal education rights fought and bought by the working classes and sold out by a bunch of fucktard "midle class" wankers - I love a good riot - fair play to the students I'm happy to pay for them now - at least they got some bollocks.

[Batch]

Higher Education should not price people out, an I include deterring the gifted through the prospect of long term debt.  The country needs educated people but are unwilling and unable to pay for them.

Its not an option now though. Ever since Labour decided that my local nursery could gain independent university status and award degrees to any Forest Gump that turned up to study the history of basket weaving it became obvious that the Country couldn't sustain paying for it.

I don't see what is wrong with proper apprenticeships for those not academically able. They will not benefit from reading for a degree but will have learnt useful skills.

Unfortunately the current state of the nation means nobody will get a job anyway.

[herthab]

And that's the problem Batch. How can anyone expect the country to continue paying for students to study for pointless degrees that offer very little to society?

[Batch]

Yup.

I don't like it one little bit, but its a fact of life unless the current government undo what Labour did. And that ain't going to happen.

I still support the protest attempts to try though.

[steptoe41]

Fucking freeloaders,

Give the old bill free rein to crack a few skulls and use the old pepper spray and most of these unwashed cowardly cunts who have never done an honest days work in their lives will run a fucking mile.

Wankers

[LucienSanchez]

Hahaha, 'mon the stooodents!

[pauld]

Fucking freeloaders,

Give the old bill free rein to crack a few skulls and use the old pepper spray and most of these unwashed cowardly cunts who have never done an honest days work in their lives will run a fucking mile.

Wankers

Presumably with the coppers shouting "Ello, ello, ello, ello, what's all this then?" as they crack said heads?

Think that's about the only stereotype you missed out

[ghanimah]

I'm bored tbh with student protests, it's like they're the only people in the world with a grievance. If Labour had instead passed exactly the same findings of the report which itself had commissioned there wouldn't be half this hoo haa. Yeah but 'cos it's Tories let's smash stuff up.

Where were the protests when Labour introduced fees in the first place? I'm with steptoe41, let's crack a few students' skulls.

[pauld]

It is indeed remarkable the extent to which Labour have got off more or less scot-free from a situation that is as much, if not more, their making than the coalition's. Doesn't make the overall thing right though

[Cookie]

I demonstrated when the fees were first introduced actually. Mind you I got bored and went to the pub after an hour or two.