University/College fees...

[Volucer]

First, please excuse the rant I expect this to become, but it is something which I think needs to be ranted about.
I'm in my third year at University, a year which is costing me £3145 in tuition fees, slightly more than last year which itself was slightly more than my first year. So overall I have a debt of about £9500 just to pay for my education. In addition to this I've had to pay £10 per course per year for a book containing photocopies of the essensial readings, so that's another £150 or so onto my "bill". This reading pack doesn't contain enough stuff to write essays on, and due to the poor quality of the libary I need to pay about £35 per subject for a book which only covers 9-18 weeks of stuff, but it's enough to ensure that I have enough to write a good essay. So this bumps how much money the University has taken from me to some ammount over £10,000.

That's £10,000 for a degree where I have 8 hours a week in lectures and seminars and then have to do the remainder of the work myself. 8 hours a week spread out so that I have 3 hour gaps between things, which isn't enough time for me to travel home, and too much time to stay on campus and do work/random other jobs such as coming here and facebook. This fee doesn't cost my transport or living arrangements which is fair enough they're something I need to take care of myself, but it also doesn't seem to be enough to ensure that there will be lectures each week, as I found out this morning when I turned up and found out that one of my lectures had been cancelled and there was nobody available to cover it. Then when the lecturers do turn up it's suprising how many of them just read from the powerpoints that they make available to download to everyone, making the lectures pointless, but if you dare miss one you are sent numourous emails telling you to turn up or be kicked off the course.

Now surely it's not just me who thinks that this is ridiculous? £10,000 to be allowed to spend hours trapsing around with nothing to do, wasting petrol to come in and find that the reason I've come in won't be happening at all. £10,000 that doesn't supply the libary with enough books for students. And especially £10,000 which doesn't guarentee that there will be any added bonus at the end of it, you can pay all that money and still emerge without a degree or a job. And it doesn't help matters that in this modern age the government pushes people into higher education.

Now, my sister goes to Uni up in Scotland and her fees are half that of mine (although they didn't have as good of a course as the one I'm on when I started) and I was wondering if anyone else was outraged at how much we are charged for our educations and if it's different in other countries?

PS. Thanks for bearing with me during the rant...

 

[corporate_gamer]

I work for a university. I think looking at the times of my postings you can understand where all your money is going. Offices full of lazy toe-rags dossing about, mostly doing entirely pointless tasks. At least my IT skills are occasionally of use.

 

[CyberAkuma]

God I'm so happy that we have free education here.
The only thing we pay for is books and some student material.

Things would look a whole lot more different if I had to pay for my 8 year long education. (3 years under-, 3 years post-, and 1 year professor candidate)
I'd probably spend the rest of my days moving ketchup-bottles in a supermarket for the rest of my life if things were like that.

 

[PureChaos]

I've just started my third year at Exeter University and by the end of it i will be about £18,000 in doubt from just tuition fees and accommodation. add on bills, food, societies, socializing, books plus anything else that comes along. the bitchy thing is that i was in the first year where students had to pay for tuition fees. there are a couple of people on my course that applied the year before but deferred entry and took a year out. because they applied the year before they dont have to play tuition fees, saving them about £9,000. i can understand that the government may not be able to afford sending god knowns how many students to higher education each year but it puts a lot more debt and pressure onto us.

 

[kiwisushi]

Am in my masters year at Cardiff university (5th year in my course) doing Civil Engineering, so have really racked up the debt, somewhere in the region of £12000, but luckily enough for me the Welsh Assembly Government capped tuition fees in welsh universities to £1250 per year. It seems that they are now changing their mind for 2010, so they will more than likely be in line with english rates. My sister will be in her final year when this happens, so its going to be pretty hard on her, with accommodation and living expenditure in Swansea. I guess from the initial rant, in my first year I had around 30 hours of lectures a week, but it has tailed off to around 20 this year due to it almost all being on my designs I come up with. For sciences and engineering I think that the money is probably better spent in terms of time with lectures and labs etc than with arts and language degrees, if both of them cost the same (as they do here, I know it is slightly different in England) .

 

[savandicus]

Well as a uni student at kings college london i'll stand by saying if you think you've got it bad you should see some of the people i've met. I myself pay £3145 tuition fees a year like nearly every other university in england, scotland is generally cheaper for various reasons (scotish citizens dont have to pay atall i think). For me though i pay 3145 for tutition 3800 for a room (self catered) and then i'm still 5 miles away from the closest campus so i have to take a bus/tube to and from uni every day which is £15 a week for 2 tube trips a day. So for me to just attend lectures and live here (not including any food, books / other expenses) then i'm paying about £7500 a year. And i'm one of the lucky ones in terms of accomodation, i know people paying 5.1 grand for their room so they're looking at nearly 9 grand a year for their fees. And then when you start factoring in food, and books and all the other living expenses then your looking at £10 grand for 1 year.

However although i am forking out umpteen millions i think its worth it, although tuition fees are alot as university students we are being taught by the best of the best, the ones who are actually writing the books and expanding the knowledge in our fields. So first consider yourself lucky your looking at a very small amount of debt compared to some, and then consider yourself lucky that your learning from some of the best minds in the country.

Also i do have to agree with you that the government shouldnt be trying to push more people into university education, some people just arent made for education and if people who dont want to learn end up at university then its just a waste of money for them, and a waste of time for the university thats trying to teach them. Not to mention that some people want to do jobs that dont require university of even a level qualifications and instead leave school and go and do an apprentiship. Forcing them to stay in education another year is wasting their time and making them spend longer doing somethning they dont want to do.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

I know ya'll are in England but this is relevant...when Chinese civilians were surveyed on what they thought was the most barbaric thing that Americans did, forcing young people to pay for their education was ranked number one.

 

[_Serendipity_]

I've just started my third year at Exeter University [...]

Same here, how odd. What course're you doing?


Anyway, if you want to be busy then do physics or engineering. Last year I had about 18 hours of contact time per week... more or less. Frankly, the scheduling is pretty messed up for most students. For weeks on end I'll have very little out-of-class work, then all of a sudden every exam, homework and lab paper deadline land on the same day, and I'm working until 3AM every night...

 

[DeadpanLunatic]

I have removed my words from this site.

 

[Slight]

3 years out of uni here, I did a 4 year Engineering course, ended up with around 14k of student debt. Would I pay it again? Sure, more even, if i had to.

When you're at uni you're being taught by the some of the country's, if not the world's experts in their fields - They deserve the reward that should come with that position. I remember one of my supervisors complaining about his paltry wage when he was the department's expert on jet engines - seriously he could have earned more being a manager at macdonalds, let alone what he could command in the aviatoin sector! So if we need to keep paying to keep brilliant minds teaching young, so be it.

I agree that the government did spend a time incentivising too many new unis/courses but then the system got flooded with unpractical degree's that offer little employability the other side. It didn't account for how different people will need different paths.

I also agree it's not for everyone...It also depends what you feel you're at university for; If you see it as investing in your own future, I think most people will see the value they can get out of it for what it costs. If you see it as a 3 year doss before you have to get a real job, then you're probably going to be more averse to paying.

That said, from what i hear/see now on the radio and TV, it seems that they're actually turning more towards highlighting the vocational alternatives to the academic path of uni. This is a great turn as it opens up options and flexibility so you don't have to worry about getting on the 'One true path' from the get-go.

I realise this point of view opens up the whole affordability issue, and thus the rich/poor argument that universities are becoming elitist institutions for only those who can afford it. Sure, that needs to be addressed too somewhere down the line, but i'll stay on topic, and cut an already long post...

I say pay what it costs, but be sure you make the most of it and it'll pay for itself in the end. It's all about the long term, baby...

 

[hungoverbear]

I go to a community college were i only pay about $900 to $1100 a semester. But i am transferring to a full blown university that can cost me from anywere between $1500 to $10,000 a semester By the time most people are done with college in america they can rack up over $100,000 in student loans. So yes i completely agree with the chinese.

 

[zen5887]

$36500 for a three year music course

 

[Blayze]

I did a two-year computing course in college a few years ago. Guess how much I paid?

£5 per year. That's £10 total. Booyah. The rest of the cost was footed by the government because I'm an English native and at the time I was straight out of school.

 

[Cyborg_Incognito]

hooray for being a scottish native!! free tuition!! 10 years of sponging of parents methinks

 

[Zykon TheLich]

# 3 for Exeter =

 

[ThaBenMan]

I went to a University for a year, and I can't remember exactly how much it cost, but I can tell you that I burned through $10,000 that my grandfather had set aside for me (admittedly, not all of that just went to tuition - I lived on campus one semester, and I had to use some of that to repair my car a couple times), and I also worked a part-time job too. I just could not afford to keep going, and wanted to avoid going into debt, so I dropped out :/.

I just don't think it's worth it. I just work normal retail jobs now to get by, and I think that someday I'll be able to do what I went to school for (to be an artist) without the need for a piece of paper I payed tens of thousands of dollars for. Unfortunately, many professions do require a degree of some sort, and I feel bad for those poor souls struggling for it.

 

[Dr_Baron_von_Evilsatan]

I know ya'll are in England but this is relevant...when Chinese civilians were surveyed on what they thought was the most barbaric thing that Americans did, forcing young people to pay for their education was ranked number one.

Luther College in Iowa is 36,000 a year. I know that's nearly not the largest in the country, but it's pretty substantial and it has annoyed me that they've raised tuition 6,000 since I've been here.

 

[Ancalagon]

The idea that Scottish students don't pay any university tuition fees is a myth. They pay a "graduation fee" at the end of their course which is equivalent to several years' regular tuition fees. You can attend for free, but don't expect to get the piece of paper at the end unless you fork out the cash.

There was a graduation fee of £2,289, but the current Scottish Government have abolished it, so any students starting now won't have to pay it.