Student Finance

[Jeros]

Needs to be nationalised RIGHT NOW.

I have no money, the uni is wanting its fees, and student finance wants me to send in my passport details for a fourth time.

I doubt its going to do anything, clearly there is some sort of system problem with my application somewhere.

 

[Scouse]

Send them registered post. Then you've got a record that they've received them.

You did do that on the third attempt didn't you?

If it's by email - add a read receipt and if you can do it over the phone to someone get them to verify the mail is in their inbox and send you a reply.

 

[Aoami]

I did everything regarding student finance by post rather than online and never even had a sniff of a problem, whereas everyone who does it online seems to get nothing but shit.

 

[Punishment]

Sell your virginity
?????
Profit

 

[Mey]

I did all my student finance via the internet for four years, never had any problems. Took the full maximun for no means tested loan and fees.

Always did it in a timely manner, not once was my payment late. Don't understand why people have so many problems.

Part of me thinks they are either applying for more than they are entitled to or they haven't provided the right information at the right time.

 

[Moriath]

Got my grants fine but that was nearly twenty years ago . Left uni with a six hundred quid debt to pay that I used to build me a PC

 

[opticle]

Got my grants fine but that was nearly twenty years ago . Left uni with a six hundred quid debt to pay that I used to build me a PC

Cunt.

 

[Tom]

Needs to be nationalised RIGHT NOW.

lol, have you ever dealt with any branch of government, local or national?

 

[Lamp]

Right, I've got a joint honours degree in Virtual Landscaping Parapsychology and Golf Management from Oldham Polytechnic, which means I should be first in the line at Goldman Sachs on 140K.

Fucking students with their heads in the i-clouds, no idea of real life, shit loads of debt, and unrealistic expectations. Get a trade. And a shower. And cut your hair, you goddam hippie.

 

[Aoami]

No. I am a Labour supporter but I firmly believe that they are responsible for young adults having these expectations by pushing school-age students towards higher education. Their motto was that everyone should have the right to an education, which is of course true. However this does not mean that everyone is right for higher education. There really doesn't seem like any other option when you are leaving school and you're a d grade student or above. It's just what you do.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Yeah, everyone under 25 has been consistently told "if you work hard/get an education you'll get somewhere" as if it's a default thing.

 

[Jeros]

Right, I've got a joint honours degree in Virtual Landscaping Parapsychology and Golf Management from Oldham Polytechnic, which means I should be first in the line at Goldman Sachs on 140K.

Fucking students with their heads in the i-clouds, no idea of real life, shit loads of debt, and unrealistic expectations. Get a trade. And a shower. And cut your hair, you goddam hippie.

Ironically it was the family that worked at sachs that pushed me to get a degree

 

[Himse]

It's the people that go get a 2:2 in War Studies or Film Studies that get me, what a fucking waste of money.

Degrees like that should be just scrapped IMO.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Why are other peoples studies such a problem with many people?

Yeah, everyone under 25 has been consistently told "if you work hard/get an education you'll get somewhere" as if it's a default thing.

Yarp, nothing is given(as in sure fire) in this world.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

It's the people that go get a 2:2 in War Studies or Film Studies that get me, what a fucking waste of money.

Degrees like that should be just scrapped IMO.

Yeah, no-one ever has careers in the military or the media.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Wazz you're wasting your time playing games, just get a real degree and a real job or else you'll be homeless!

Right?

 

[Raven]

Media studies degrees are 10 a penny these days. Not much use for stacking shelves at Tesco though. History, while an interesting subject has pretty limited application too, even if you do well you probably won't earn much money. I would love to be an archaeologist but fuck digging around in a cold field for 20k a year.

My wife spent 3 years in higher education, doing courses relevant to her career. She now gets about 18k a year for working with special needs children and disadvantaged families. While she is excellent at her job and does a lot of good for people she gets paid next to fuck all. She is now training to be a teacher.

More people need to do practical things that suit their skills. Too many people just think they can get any old degree and walk into 40k and a company car.

Frankly, I blame the lefty careers advice idiots for imposing their view of how things should be onto the real world. If they apply for a degree in David Beckham then they should be made aware at the start that they are just delaying their cleaners job start date for 3 years and nothing will come of their degree.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Attitudes need to change in the people as well, mainly the one where everyone is telling every other one what to do/say/think/like and how to take a morning dump.

If someone wants to study horselogy and breed unicorns, let them.

 

[Raven]

Yeah that's fine. So long as they don't expect me to pay for it or for them to get a good job out of it.

 

[Himse]

Media studies degrees are 10 a penny these days. Not much use for stacking shelves at Tesco though. History, while an interesting subject has pretty limited application too, even if you do well you probably won't earn much money. I would love to be an archaeologist but fuck digging around in a cold field for 20k a year.

My wife spent 3 years in higher education, doing courses relevant to her career. She now gets about 18k a year for working with special needs children and disadvantaged families. While she is excellent at her job and does a lot of good for people she gets paid next to fuck all. She is now training to be a teacher.

More people need to do practical things that suit their skills. Too many people just think they can get any old degree and walk into 40k and a company car.

Frankly, I blame the lefty careers advice idiots for imposing their view of how things should be onto the real world. If they apply for a degree in David Beckham then they should be made aware at the start that they are just delaying their cleaners job start date for 3 years and nothing will come of their degree.

Attitudes need to change in the people as well, mainly the one where everyone is telling every other one what to do/say/think/like and how to take a morning dump.

If someone wants to study horselogy and breed unicorns, let them.

My points, just a bit more explained really.

I'm not against people studying these subjects, it just drives me mad when they complain they're unemployable because they wasted 3 years studying for a degree.

I don't have a degree, and i'm doing alot better than most of my mates, I have my HNC in Construction, which I studied part time whilst working as well, as such I now have roughly 5-6 years under my belt.

 

[Madmaxx]

how about computer science ?

 

[Jeros]

lol, have you ever dealt with any branch of government, local or national?

Yes and they have never been this much trouble.

They now claim they don't need my passport and they are just waiting for someone to get a chance to look at my application (I am a continuing student not a new one).

Its December

Without fee payment, I cannot even be sure my uni will let me sit exams :/

 

[Scouse]

Yeah, everyone under 25 has been consistently told "if you work hard/get an education you'll get somewhere" as if it's a default thing.

It's a big fat lie.

If you start rich, go to eton, get into cambridge and oxford, then you'll get somewhere.

Otherwise you'll be one of the plebs, effectively.

 

[Jeros]

It's a big fat lie.

If you start rich, go to eton, get into cambridge and oxford, then you'll get somewhere.

Otherwise you'll be one of the plebs, effectively.

Part of the reason I want to leave this country.

Its one thing talking about people you describe.

Its quite another having one in a position of influence over your life saying it to your face or to your kids.

I grew up thinking these people were all but gone.

 

[- English -]

Millions of people go uni, it's no big thing now, the degree is worth less than the paper written on. If it has taught me 1 thing it is that you need to put effort in outside.
People expect to go uni, get a degree and get a job. The stuff I use at work i've learnt 95% of it from self teaching through personal interest / desire, and this has taken many years of boring morning/afternoons/evenings/voluntary projects.

Many people on my current course have never bothered to read ahead and learn stuff therefore they are unemployable in a real job. so much that they cannot even get an unpaid internship, whereas I was offered a job when applying due to my skillset or whatever. Most places don't care what modules you've done, or what grades you have gotten, they just want results in the form of, if you can start tomorrow can you do this and that..

 

[Yoni]

It's a big fat lie.

If you start rich, go to eton, get into cambridge and oxford, then you'll get somewhere.

Otherwise you'll be one of the plebs, effectively.

Rubbish, in my experience (and I am old so have more than most on here). If you work hard and constantly strive to improve you will do just fine... I begun building kettles in a factory, I'm now a senior FD in a massive worldwide organisation.

The man responsible for the UK started out sweeping a branch...

Several of the VDs of Saab aerospace got there by working hard no degree

Most of the graduates I have met whilst looking to employ staff seem to think it is their god given right to be a manager, without getting life experience.... I don't employ graduates with that attitude. I employ graduates who genuinely want to get some experience and have an interest in the role.

 

[Scouse]

Rubbish, in my experience (and I am old so have more than most on here)

I'm old too. My experience shows me that the creative and caring people of this world go nowhere (in financial terms) and the cynical wankers float. The priviledged stay that way and keep the riff-raff out.

I'm also of the opinion that 50k a year is shit - it wouldn't pay for your kids to go to the schools I'm talking about.

Being "middle-class" is not an aspiration that enthuses many IMO.

 

[Yoni]

I'm old too. My experience shows me that the creative and caring people of this world go nowhere (in financial terms) and the cynical wankers float.

I'm also of the opinion that 50k a year is shit - it wouldn't pay for your kids to go to the schools I'm talking about.

Being "middle-class" is not an aspiration that enthuses many IMO.

Why would you want your kids to go to Eton anyway.......

There are lots of loving and caring people who do well, probably as many who don't. However due to your views and socialist point of view you probably don't cross paths with them very often...

 

[noblok]

Rubbish, in my experience (and I am old so have more than most on here). If you work hard and constantly strive to improve you will do just fine... I begun building kettles in a factory, I'm now a senior FD in a massive worldwide organisation.

Personal experience is one thing. Hard statistics another.

http://www.oecd.org/eco/productivityandlongtermgrowth/49849281.pdf

*The influence of parental background on individual earnings varies widely across OECD countries for which estimates are available. Low mobility across generations, as measured by a close link between parents’ and children’s earnings, is particularly pronounced in the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States and France, while mobility is higher in the Nordic countries, Australia and Canada.

* Across European OECD countries covered by the analysis, there is a substantial wage premium associated with growing up in a higher-educated family and a penalty with growing up in a less-educated family, even after controlling for a number of individual characteristics. The premium and penalty are particularly large in southern European countries, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Ireland (a premium of 20% and penalty of 16% or more). In general, wage persistence across generations, measured as the difference between the wage premium and penalty, is slightly stronger for sons than for daughters.

The UK is even one of the few countries where direct parental influence is more important than indirect (through offering them better chances in education).

The resulting estimates suggest that parental background mainly influences offspring wages through their own educational attainment (i.e. by indirectly influencing offspring productivity) except in a few countries (the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Ireland) where direct linkages appear to be more important than the indirect ones through education.

And working hard won't guarantee you a good job either:

In fact, cross-country empirical evidence shows that in a few European OECD countries (e.g. Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom), financial constraints may hold back highly able individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds (see Causa et al., 2009, for details).

 

[Jeros]

The value of the degree depends on the job.

For the sorts of job I am going to apply for (Science based) a BSc is a minimum requirement and is stated in the application process.