Tuition fees.

[thestoatyone]

Well, there goes Britain's developed nation status....

[mabli]

Well, there goes Britain's developed nation status....

England's...

brilliant to see folk out on the streets

[thestoatyone]

Well, there goes Britain's developed nation status....

England's...

brilliant to see folk out on the streets

Yeah fair point but way to go to rub it in!

People on the streets, as cheering as it may be, ain't going to change their minds...

[mabli]

LONDON (AP) — Angry protesters in London have attacked a car containing Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
An Associated Press photographer saw demonstrators kick the car in Regent Street, in the heart of London's shopping district. The car then drove off.

The prince's office had no immediate comment.
Protesters angry at a huge tuition fee hike are fighting with police and smashing windows in London.

[JP]

did the welsh and scottish mps help to get this bill which doesnt affect wales and scotland to get through?

[mabli]

did the welsh and scottish mps help to get this bill which doesnt affect wales and scotland to get through?

I imagine Welsh and Scottish MPs were the reason it was such a close vote, tories are the minority here still. It isnt fair that Scots, N ireland and Welsh MPs get to vote on issues that dont effect them, but consider that England has something like 330 Aliance MPs as against 190 oposition...

[vCLaW]

There's only one Tory MP from Scotland, but there's still plenty of LibDem sell outs who voted in favour of it. Despite pledging before the election not to increase fees.
Found a list here, to check how your MP voted: http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.p ... y=allvotes

And the cuts to funding education will have a lot of effect on universities etc in Scotland and Wales as well.

[mabli]

No surprise my local MP voted aye... My Welsh MP gets to vote on English fees but not Welsh fees...

I'm pleased to see people on the streets again, even if it didn't sway the vote this time, hopefully other cuts will be met with the same anger with better results.

[thestoatyone]

in other news; Labour MPs in university seats help constituents struggling with the cold weather by gleefully rubbing their hands together. Constantly.

[E-P]

I was shocked how quickly this moved on to be voted. As well, found it extremely ridiculous that as a student in North Wales the information doesn't go around the same way as in Universities in bigger cities, as nothing happens near here, so I didn't even know about the latest demonstrations because I don't have a f*cking facebook! Where is this world going!!11

[Fallen_Horse]

I suppose I have missed the story (living in the US). Currently my university tuition is $400 a credit, so about $12,000 a year, not including fees, mandatory health insurance, books, and living costs.

I know you kids aren't happy with paying tuition at all, but I doubt it's as bad as we have it!

[jparis]

I suppose I have missed the story

The last government commisioned an independent review into higher education funding.

Both Labour and the Tories said if they won the election they would implement the findings of the review.

But... the Liberal Democrats, probably not actually thinking they would be in government, pledged before the election to vote against the fees. And now they look a bit 2 faced, and this really pissed people off.

Out of 57 Liberal MP's:

21 voted against
27 voted for (mostly ministers)
8 abstained
1 was in Cancun

A libertarian website about the fees http://www.tfa.net/the_freedom_association/2010/12/do-you-know-all-the-facts-on-fees-the-truth-about-the-reforms.html

and from another perspective http://factsonfees.uinc.org/

[Fallen_Horse]

Sounds like peeps in the UK want to cut taxes and are cutting education funding to support those cuts.

Welcome to the USA! Now let's hope you guys don't castrate your healthcare system too!

[Gelert]

did the welsh and scottish mps help to get this bill which doesnt affect wales and scotland to get through?

It does affect Wales though (don't know the score in Scotland).

The Welsh assembly have taken a stand that a student living in Wales can go to anywhere in the UK and only pay the Welsh level of tuition fees. Non-Welsh students coming to a Welsh university will pay the same fees as they would to study at an university in say, England.

All very admirable, but the difference is being paid from the Welsh HE teaching budget - I understand this means that the 12% cut already planned works out at more like a 31% cut in practice. Things were grim before even the 12% cut. After the 12% cut there was talk of 5 out of 11 HE institutions in Wales merging/closing. I guess this means we're all fucked now, because Welsh unis seldom fare well in the research/commercialization side.

[Hiking Fox]

I know you kids aren't happy with paying tuition at all, but I doubt it's as bad as we have it!

Yes it is. We currently have underfunded universities and tuition fees. Now we'll have underfunded universities with high tuition fees.

At the moment, students pay around £3,300 (I don't have the exact figure to hand) per year full time and £1,600 per year part time, not to mention the cost of travel and textbooks. With caps gone and Govt funding cut right back, the most popular universities like UCL and Manchester will be free to price out the poorest students and education institutions will have to behave more and more like businesses.

We'll end up with a two-tier education system, rather than the relative melting pot we have now. I know people from wealthy (by my standards, as in their parents are doctors and lawyers) backgrounds who got into ethical issues and social justice after meeting people from a wide range of backgrounds at uni. Before then, they'd only ever really mixed with other rich kids.

The "old boys' network" is likely to come back with a vengeance, as people stay in class-based social ghettos like they did in Victorian times, with people from privileged backgrounds having no encouragement to make friends from across the social strata.

Scotland has had free university education for some time, yet their universities are world class and highly respected, so I don't buy the whole Govt argument that "It has to be like this."

I can only see the brain drain getting worse over time, as it becomes harder and harder to recruit teachers, scientists and engineers.