(no subject)
Jan. 15th, 2004 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hathycolI appear to have done my homework.
This is mightily strange.
I am now just making the finishing touches to my speech, and then I'll go stomping around the house shouting a lot. I tried to be objective, but I have a three minute time limit, and it's much quicker to say 'look, we need more money for University, but charging an extra £3,000 a year is not on.' Obviously, I say it in a slightly more verbose and florid way.
I feel really fat today. It's the jeans. They're... well, for a lack of a better term, they're normal. They're these tight, skanky things that I brought with the intention of hacking of the sides and making them flared. I have flares, normally, because, in my brain, they make my hips look smaller, because I am a classic pear shaped girly. So, I put on the jeans because I have nothing left to wear and promptly feel Weird with a capital W. (As evidenced by my cunning use of the capital, there.) And I still feel Weird. But on the plsu side thy're 30" length so they don't drag in the rain! Hurrah!
Um, yeah. Firstly, an apology. I was all negative and PMTy towards![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flickerswitch before, which is a Bad Thing, because I need someone to gently squee about Historical Real Person Slash with... and because she's a lovely person who let me getting slightly pissed on New Years and make weird comments about her boobs. (Which I remembered three nights later, and I woke up in a cold sweat about it and everything.)
And this is my speech. Comments appreciated.
I would be a fool if I stood here and declared that university should be free for all. Such a thing would be not only impractical, but impossible with the current numbers of students.
I also believe that financial strain should not impede any student’s progress into university life. This is already becoming a major issue for many potential students. Horror stories from both tabloids and broadsheets speak of immense financial strain on students. The average debt for a student leaving university is £12,000, a figure large enough to deter many people from lower-earning families as it is. In some cases the fees are waived, but in others students choose to drop out of higher education, regardless of their own potential or intellect.
Such a trend is worrying in the extreme. The problem will not go away no matter what. Nor will the lowering standards of universities due to a lack of funds.
I firmly believe in education for all. Yet I cannot ignore the fact that more students’ means less money for the universities, and it is fair to no one that degrees become worth less due to universities being strapped for cash. Clearly, something has to be done.
The government’s answer consists of top-up fees. Ignoring the current increasing rate of student debt, they have decided, in their infinite wisdom, to give students an extra £3,000 a year to worry about paying off! I wonder if the government have spoken to any of the majority of whom they are supposed to be representing? After all, this is New Labour, the party for all of us upwardly mobile working and middle classes. Yet the government ignores us! A fine attitude for a party so dedicated towards the betterment of all people.
After I have left university, I will be approximately 22. This means that I, quite possibly, may be paying off my university fees until I am in my late forties. It’s hardly an attractive prospect for your average 16 year old, and I imagine less attractive to those filling out their UCAS forms at age 17.
By my logic, the government’s current plans are, to say the least, extremely unfair, designed to breed a whole new standard of graduates - those who are either from privileged backgrounds and can afford £3,000 (on top of living costs) a year, or those who qualify under the government set out family backgrounds. Those in the middle class, such as myself and another 70% of this nation, will be left out in the cold for university, once again breeding the elitist stigma attached to university.
Hardly fair for a party supposedly representing the majority.
~Hathy_Col~
This is mightily strange.
I am now just making the finishing touches to my speech, and then I'll go stomping around the house shouting a lot. I tried to be objective, but I have a three minute time limit, and it's much quicker to say 'look, we need more money for University, but charging an extra £3,000 a year is not on.' Obviously, I say it in a slightly more verbose and florid way.
I feel really fat today. It's the jeans. They're... well, for a lack of a better term, they're normal. They're these tight, skanky things that I brought with the intention of hacking of the sides and making them flared. I have flares, normally, because, in my brain, they make my hips look smaller, because I am a classic pear shaped girly. So, I put on the jeans because I have nothing left to wear and promptly feel Weird with a capital W. (As evidenced by my cunning use of the capital, there.) And I still feel Weird. But on the plsu side thy're 30" length so they don't drag in the rain! Hurrah!
Um, yeah. Firstly, an apology. I was all negative and PMTy towards
flickerswitch before, which is a Bad Thing, because I need someone to gently squee about Historical Real Person Slash with... and because she's a lovely person who let me getting slightly pissed on New Years and make weird comments about her boobs. (Which I remembered three nights later, and I woke up in a cold sweat about it and everything.)And this is my speech. Comments appreciated.
I would be a fool if I stood here and declared that university should be free for all. Such a thing would be not only impractical, but impossible with the current numbers of students.
I also believe that financial strain should not impede any student’s progress into university life. This is already becoming a major issue for many potential students. Horror stories from both tabloids and broadsheets speak of immense financial strain on students. The average debt for a student leaving university is £12,000, a figure large enough to deter many people from lower-earning families as it is. In some cases the fees are waived, but in others students choose to drop out of higher education, regardless of their own potential or intellect.
Such a trend is worrying in the extreme. The problem will not go away no matter what. Nor will the lowering standards of universities due to a lack of funds.
I firmly believe in education for all. Yet I cannot ignore the fact that more students’ means less money for the universities, and it is fair to no one that degrees become worth less due to universities being strapped for cash. Clearly, something has to be done.
The government’s answer consists of top-up fees. Ignoring the current increasing rate of student debt, they have decided, in their infinite wisdom, to give students an extra £3,000 a year to worry about paying off! I wonder if the government have spoken to any of the majority of whom they are supposed to be representing? After all, this is New Labour, the party for all of us upwardly mobile working and middle classes. Yet the government ignores us! A fine attitude for a party so dedicated towards the betterment of all people.
After I have left university, I will be approximately 22. This means that I, quite possibly, may be paying off my university fees until I am in my late forties. It’s hardly an attractive prospect for your average 16 year old, and I imagine less attractive to those filling out their UCAS forms at age 17.
By my logic, the government’s current plans are, to say the least, extremely unfair, designed to breed a whole new standard of graduates - those who are either from privileged backgrounds and can afford £3,000 (on top of living costs) a year, or those who qualify under the government set out family backgrounds. Those in the middle class, such as myself and another 70% of this nation, will be left out in the cold for university, once again breeding the elitist stigma attached to university.
Hardly fair for a party supposedly representing the majority.
~Hathy_Col~
you finished!
Date: 2004-01-15 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-16 08:39 am (UTC)