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13 October
The Price Isn't Right For Student Debt
Finance system failing
UK students,
is it worth it?
by
SoftwareGuru
posted Friday 10th October 2008 09:21 GMT
The Credit
Crunch and the global economic crisis that has been ongoing now for
several weeks serves to underline the outstanding issues of student
finance and student debt.
Previously we've explored the virtues of software such as
Microsoft Outlook, Excel and
OneNote to help plan timetables and budgets.
Yet the Government themselves are not leading by example. The
current UK student loans' system is in a mess* and there still remains a
backlog of EMA grants a month after the start of term.
Vista Ultimate may provide a wide variety of tools but perhaps the
most basic one of all, the calculator, has been overlooked once too
often.
*400,000 students have not made repayments on their loans up to
seven years after graduation.
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Funding a 21st century education.
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We must balance our own books too. |
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Student finance survival
If you are looking for tips and advice on how
to make an essential student budget and stick to it, useful information
can be found
here and
here.
Creating your own student debt survival guide is even more difficult
given how uncertain the future is in relation to many of the UK's banks
who won't even lend to each other, let alone Joe Public.
The Guardian newspaper, who have written about Software4Students several
times, have put together the very latest info available as of 5th Oct 08
which you can
read online.
More than 100,000 applications for EMAs - which give 16 to 18 year olds
from low income families up to £30 a week to stay in education - are
still being processed.
All of this is taking place while the value of your house is falling
across the UK, particularly in Northern Ireland, energy bills are on the
rise and the Labour Government argue internally over leadership issues.
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Student debt for a bachelor's degree.
Facing up to these challenges poses many questions
which we must answer.
To answer them, we must acknowledge that the present system is deeply
flawed and must be overhauled.
The fact remains that one in three graduates is not repaying her or his student loan.
The questions continue:
Is it really relevant or necessary to have a university education? Is it
worth getting into a lot of student debt for a bachelor's degree? Has
the explosion of new universities offering bachelor's degrees devalued
it to the point where it is simply not worth the average £20,000 debt
for a 3-year course?
With the advent of computers, fibre optic broadband and online web
seminars, isn't the very idea of going away to University an outdated
concept from the last century?
Isn't there a much cheaper, cleverer way to educate the next generation
of students with the skills they really need?
Until then, we can conclude that student debt is a necessary evil and
one that must be carefully
managed so as to minimise it's impact until a better solution is
found.
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According to The Guardian, the
average degree cost in UK is £20K over three years.
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Posted by
admin
at
12:25
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We discuss what parents & students can do to tackle debt from studying in UK.