Are the universities (UK) not overpopulated with rich nitwits enough already?

The trouble is that the market is being flooded by young people with (often meaningless) degrees and even at the best of economic times there wouldn't have been jobs available to cope with the demand. It is necessary in society for people to be working at all levels of job, from warehouse working right up to prime minister.

Unfortunately the powers that be decree that those with the best jobs should be those with the money, not those with the capacity.

I'm afraid I was appalled when I read the news report about this. It was bad enough that they introduced top-up fees, but putting it up that high? When I was planning to go to university I noticed a lot of my peers didn't actually view it as dept, they just thought "Oh the student loans will pay for it and I don't have to start paying them back till I'm finished and earning so it's not like I'm really in dept." which is stupid, because you'll still have a huge amount of dept hanging over you, just because you don't have to repay it straight away doesn't mean it isn't there.

The whole idea is stupid, the government has stated it wants more of it's population to have a university education (in order to compete with other countries who are churning out more graduates than us), it claims it wants to close the cap between rich and poor, it claims it wants to get rid of child poverty and give poor children a fairer shot at success. And what does it do? Raise the price of university to the level where no one but the rich can even contemplate affording it.

I got lucky, I chose to ignore conventional university and am doing my degree with the Open University. While most people my age will come out of university with £12,000-17,000 or more of dept, I will spend less than £4000 over 3-5 years, during which time I can work a full time job if I wanted to pay for each module (which you pay for separately). I think a lot more people will consider this kind of option if top-up fees do go up. But while this is fine for me to do, there will always be some subjects that the OU and others like it can't offer (say medicine), so some people will be forced to get into horrendous dept or give up their dreams.

Oh dear! you do have a chip on your shoulder don't you. Despite years of trying to rid the UK of the 'class curse' it seems some people are determined to hang onto it - so lets remind ourselves how the classes were decided........ Upper Class = the aristocracy (peers of the realm) and those whose wealth was accrued in previous generations. Middle Class = those who had a business and were not dependant on others for their wages. Lower Class = those who were employed in unskilled work or did not work at all. Therefore your argument about 'rich mediocrities' linked with 'middle class muppets' do not hold up. One further point; rich mediocrities who are thick do not get a degree but their fees enable the university to take less wealthy, but intelligent, students at reduced costs.

Actually its not the poor that will suffer its the middle class. People from low income families are entitled to grants for going to uni (which they don't pay back) and can get higher loans to cover maintance fees. I've been out of schooling for two years trying to save up for uni, my dad earns 60,000+ a year and so pays thousands and thousands in tax, and I've been paying tax for the past two years, and I am entitled to nothing. I do not want to have to rely on my parents and they cannot afford to pay for my univeristy fees anyway. My brother and I brother are starting uni at the same time with no help from the government. If the fees are raised to even £5,000 neither of us would be able to go.

Any such proposals wouldn't affect the upper class or those from low income families, it is the middle class who would suffer. Fees and grants should be the same for everyone, it shouldn't depend on the finances of your family.

There is currently no proposals to increase fees. It was a suvey done by the BBC asking uni chancellors if they'd like to increase their fees, of course the majority said yes. Any party who proposed to increase uni fees would be shot down by the opposition and would lose votes from middle class voters so it is very unlikely to happen.

Hi Princess.

i am going to uni in September, as a 29 year old mature student, from a working class background.

I think that universities need more WC people, and i think that WC people need to be aware that they can go to uni.

with the hike in tuition fees i think it will put alot of WC people off the idea, or they simply wont be able to afford to go.

what a shame!

Hi princess p,its all about money,everything is about money if you dont have the dosh then you have to suffer its that simple.I fcuking hate the world because of this.Poor people suffer more while the lucky gits get even luckier.