With 80,000+ students in the area then local businesses' quest for the student pound is always intense.
This bar used to go by the name of Overdraught before rebranding as Downtown a couple of years ago. The other week it changed again, to AXM, to greet the new academic year. A different name perhaps but the same premises and the same premise - inticing students to part with their cash in exchange for alcohol.
The Conservative and Liberal coalition governments' decision to impose a £9,000 (US$14,000, €10,500) per annum fees charge for every student from September 2012, (meaning students need to find £27,000 for a three year course before they even consider rent, food, clothes and food) will doubtless have a huge effect on the numbers and demographics of young people able to attend university in the future.
The Labour Party say they would cut this to £6,000 a year, but that would still be £18,000 to pay in back tax, just to pay for fees!
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas offers the most sensible solution when she states: "The truth is that it was Labour politicians who got the ball rolling on higher tuition costs, and only now are they realising - too late in the day and in the face of huge public opposition - that prohibitively expensive fees will have a serious impact on the prospects of our young people. For a real alternative, Labour should look no further than the UCU's proposal for a business education tax levied on the top 4% of UK companies. This would generate enough annually to abolish tuition fees and increase UK investment in higher education - while still keeping the UK's main corporation tax below that of France, Japan and the US."
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/
Chrissy, love your post. It is unreal the debt of any student graduating right now in the US.
ReplyDeleteDoes the fee have to be paid up front Chrissy? We have a system here where the HEC fees (for Australian students)can be held off until after graduation and then they take it out of the wages for what seems like forever!! but overseas students have to pay up front. Bet you somehow students will always find money for an ale!!
ReplyDeleteoh !
ReplyDeleteBack home in Germany, I was able to get a kind of credit from the city in which I studied, due to be paid back ten years after finishing University.
State owned University over here, still is free.
Please have a good Wednesday.
Caroline is right, it is no good Labour people crying foul now, they started down this route.
ReplyDeleteI, millions of others and I guess most of our current politicians got a grant that enable me to go to Uni. Now they have pulled the ladder up and said sod you Jack, I am all right.
This will I think have a huge long standing effect on the life chances of many people who can least afford to get a decent education.