To add to our woes the Universities in this country are bolloxed too. Most on their knees financially. Do not be surprised to see some go bust, whatever that looks like for a university. It has been clear for a few years tuition fees need to be allowed to go up, mind you dont believe uni leaders on the scale of fee rise. They need to learn how to run a commercial business, which is what universities need to be. They are largely led by academics who have never had to deal with financial forecasts or constraints, and frankly dont have the right sort of practical intelligence to do so. The sector needs huge reform, outside in, as a pre-condition of being allowed to charge more. Otherwise they will charge more and never learn to be effective modern enterprises. Prime opportunity for Labour to create a new/modernised HE offer in this country. I hope they have the foresight that succeasive governments have failed to have since 1992, which was when the decline started.
Polytechnics becoming universities. The balance shifted too far to academic subjects after that, and academic led institutions. In my opinion anyway. Blairs grand plan was a bigger problem, but I believe the move away from polytechnics laid the foundation for it, and the advent of some dubious mixed subject courses.
Tuition fees was the reason out grand daughter decided not to go to Uni having earned her place, she didn't want the burden of debt. She now has three jobs, is learning on the coal face so to speak. She owns her car has money in her bank account and is currently touring Italy on her own and thoroughly enjoying her life, there is a life beyond/instead of Uni and it's time the authorities woke up to that instead of 'badgering' school leavers into a university life.
Got that discussion to have in about 12 months time - my eldest has just started his A Levels and is talking about Uni without necessarily having a plan in place as to what he wants to do. I've told him that I'll help him where I can with his fees (or possibly the loans afterwards) but the idea of being saddled with 30k+ debt before you even start your working life is not an attractive one.
Our GD is very studious and would have breezed through Uni but decided it wasn't for her. It was all her decision, no parent pressure and she hasn't looked back although she does admit the opportunity to make new friends is something she has regrets about.
I don’t even know why I should be concerned about the state of the UK anymore given that I no longer live there but I suppose that deep down I will always be an Englishman no matter where I live. Anyway, out for a run this afternoon and this song was on the playlist (you can thank me later @Snaggey ) Singing along to it I just changed the lyrics of the second verse slightly, I’m sure you will see where. I twist the truth, I rule the world, my crown is called deceit I am the emperor of lies, you grovel at my feet I rob you and I slaughter you, your downfall is my gain And still you play the sycophant and revel in your pain And all my promises are lies, all my love is hate My name is Kier Starmer and I decide your fate
My own son has started uni this week. I expect he will leave next week. The level of debt he will carry is a massive worry for him, although I can fund his non tuition stuff. But he got his timetable yesterday and it is a pathetic bit of planning on his uni part. 4 days on campus, for 17 hours of teaching. 3 days 5-6, including 2 days where 5-6 is the only slot. He commutes in at a cost of £12 per day, and with a 6pm finish means he cant easily get bar work which is how he has funded himself so far. It is a terrible timetable for £9k.
At least the lads on here who voted Tory had the balls to come on here and stick up for them. God knows where the Labour luvvies have disappeared to.
Some prisoners released early as part of efforts to ease overcrowding have not been fitted with electronic tracking devices, despite it being a condition of their release, the BBC has been told. Several offenders released on licence said they had not been fitted with an ankle tag - with one describing it as "a disaster waiting to happen". One probation officer said the delays in them being fitted appeared to be due to a shortage of tags, while the Ministry of Justice said it was due to a backlog of former prisoners. BORIS JOHNSON was better than this clown.
I read that one of those released offended and was re-arrested within 24 hours. I dont necessarily think the policy was wrong. But it does seem to have been implemented without an assessment as to whether it could be effectively implemented. Our new govt do seem to be shy of assessing impact of policy. That said he is no Boris yet. Poor start though. He and Meloni cosying up this week was another shake my head moment.
Apparently some of these early released left prison without being tagged, the Government are blaming the tagging manufacturers for being unable to supply enough to do the job. Would it not have been better to have hung onto the prisoners a little while longer instead of letting them go....or did that not fit into Starmers rushed idea to get space into prisons whatever the cost to society.
Lucy Powell MP....Leader of the House of Commons, currently speaking on Question Time....struggling like ****. Embarrassing! Is this the best the Liebour government can ****ing do. Not wishing my life away but hurry up the next election.
Yes, that happened. One guy interviewed on the BBC last night stated that they didn’t have tags on. Probation were not showing up at their door and nobody was phoning them to check that they were in the house. If those released want to go out and commit crime or hunt their victims, there’s literally nothing stopping them and nobody watching.
Labour need to put Starmer and Reeves out immediately and replace them with people that are capable before they do anymore damage. The longest-running measure of consumer confidence fell sharply in September, raising concerns about whether government rhetoric about Budget "pain" has spooked people. GfK's Consumer Confidence Index had been recovering after years of rolling crises, higher interest rates and inflation gradually creeping up. But since the end of August, it fell by seven points to -20 overall, which GfK has said does not provide "encouraging news" for the UK's new government. Some economists have linked the drop to officials' warnings of a "painful" Budget at the end of August. There were "major corrections" - or double digit falls - for consumers' perception of the general economic situation, as well as how likely they were to make big purchases. People's view of their own personal finances in the future has also turned negative again, down nine points to -3. Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had previously hailed the turn in this measure positive as a sign of an economic turnaround. The fall was unexpected as it came in the aftermath of an interest rate cut from the Bank of England, potentially easing the pressure faced by some homeowners. But other measures of consumer confidence have dipped too. "Despite stable inflation and the prospect of further cuts in the base interest rate, this is not encouraging news for the UK’s new government," said Neil Bellamy, consumer insights director at GfK. He suggested that following the withdrawal of winter fuel payments and warnings of "further difficult decisions" to come on tax, spending and welfare, consumers are "nervously" awaiting the upcoming Budget on 30 October.
Yeah I think students (and their parents) are quite right to demand more for their money these days. When I was at uni, I used to have a German seminar 6-8 on a Monday which was a right ball ache, but it was all free. You sort of accepted what you were given in those days. I'd be interested to know what the statistics are about University numbers since they brough fees in - I'd imagine a lot of Unis have a good proportion of foreign, fee-paying students now - there were a handful on my course back when it was free (not moaning, just interested before anyone calls me Xenophobic)
Most universities rely on foreign students to fund their research activities, overseas students can pay up to 3 times the standard £9250 tuition fees. Some universities are only surviving because of these inflated fees and accommodation charges for overseas students. The demand for university places is increasing year on year with an increase in the 18 year old population, most of this demand will be around London and the South-East. International student numbers are also growing despite Brexit with a lot of Universities looking to China to fill the drop in EU student numbers. In 2021, 32% (the majority) of the total number of international students in the UK come from China, meaning there are roughly 143,820 students from China in the UK. That's around £2.5bn of the £7bn in tuition fees that such students pay each year. About 6% of universities’ total income.
Tuition fees have been held by govt policy for something like 8 years. No inflationary rises or anything. One of the few sectors not to be supported during the pandemic, despite being told to keep teaching online which meant many had to spend big to fund the sudden shift. There is plenty of evidence to suggest the cost of delivering a degree costs more than £9250 for many courses. It is mad that a course in English Lit costs the same as one in say Music Production where the cost of equipment needed for students to learn is huge by comparison. The problem universities have had is having to increase student numbers, as the costs go up and up but govts prevent them charging more. The answer for many has been to recruit significant numbers of overseas students. They pay considerably more for their tuition fees. As a result many universities have kept just enough money coming in. Until now. Govt policy on immigration has blown a hole in overseas student recruitment. Rules such as you cant bring a dependant with you anymore, or the proposed changes in staying after for work, have resulted in a huge drop in international students this coming year. No suprise. I dare also say students and families looking at our riots on tv, and reading about our political focus on immigration may think twice about coming here. The bare reality is it is a sector which is fundamentally in crisis. There is much universities need to reform, and a lot is in their gift to do so, but reform itself is only part of the answer. The govt say it is up to universities to manage their own budgets and they are independant organisations. That is nonsense when it is govt who sets how much we can charge or set policy at odds with how the sector operates. Govt really do need to step up and grasp this now. The urgency has increased massively in Labours first year, ignore it and the sector will start to fail at a rate of knots.
Another beast let off when Two Tier was in charge of the CPS —————————————————- The Crown Prosecution Service has said that it twice considered bringing charges against ex-Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed but concluded there was no realistic prospect of a conviction. Police officers presented the CPS with evidence in 2009 and 2015 "which our prosecutors looked carefully at", it confirmed.
