London calling [Student tuition fees and the protests]

[Cheetah]

for the lazy;won't read:

Student tuition fees are set to rise. Students protests. Some more than others.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11726822

There have been clashes between demonstrators and police in London, as students and lecturers protest against plans to treble tuition fees and cut university funding in England.

Protesters have broken into the building housing the Conservative Party headquarters in Westminster.

They have set fire to placards outside.

Student leaders condemned the violence as "despicable". They say about 30,000 people took part in a march earlier.

A stand-off is taking place between students and the police, with protesters surging forward at 30 Millbank, chanting.

Some protesters went on to a roof terrace at the top of the building.

Missiles were thrown at the police, as thousands of demonstrators crowded the street outside.

According to Scotland Yard, nine people have been taken to hospitals in London for treatment - both police officers and protesters.

The vast majority of demonstrators had been peaceful, a statement said, but "a small minority" had damaged property.

[...]

The NUS is threatening to try to unseat Liberal Democrat MPs who go back on pre-election pledges they made to oppose any rise in tuition fees.

Higher education funding is being cut by 40% - with teaching grants being all but wiped out except for science and maths.

The government expects the costs of teaching other courses to be funded by tuition fees.

It proposes that tuition fees should rise from 2012.

The plan is for a lower cap at £6,000, with universities able to charge up to £9,000 - triple the current cap - in "exceptional circumstances".

Ministers insist their plans offer a "fair deal for students".

Idle brains are the Devil's playthings?

 

[Bill3000]

Only £6,000? Is that per year? That's ridiculously cheap!

 

[ParadigmShifter]

My fees were £0 per year

EDIT: Of course, so were David Cameron's, Nick Clegg's and Ed Milliband's

 

[bhsup]

ME HULK, ME MAD, ME BREAK!!!

What the hell, man? Seriously? Arrest the criminals and let them toil away doing something, anything, to support non-disruptive students.

 

[W|M]

£6000 is ridiculously high. Brazil's PhDs cost less than an X-Box for the whole course, and they are the most expensive ones. PS, did you go to Uni in Scotland? Also, there's a word that should be censored in the first pic. I agree that the Tories and Lib Dems are ridiculously corrupt, lying pigs, though.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Well if you live in London it's a good way to find out if we have a Conservative Prime Minister.

Look out the window: are people rioting about government policy?

Yes: Congratulations, you have a Conservative PM
No: You may not have a Conservative PM.

EDIT: WIM - No, I went to University in 1989

 

[W|M]

, good thing I'm outta here in 2012! The Tories are already unbearable!

 

[Zelig]

Only £6,000? Is that per year? That's ridiculously cheap!

Eh, I dunno, maybe compared to the US, but that's around $9600, which is more expensive than any university in Canada.

Even compared to US schools, it doesn't seem ridiculously cheap as long as you stay in state; the US News report has 10 schools ranked in their top 200 with in-state tuition under $10k/year and 27 with tuition between $10k and $15k.

 

[W|M]

Take into account exchange rates, and American universities are much cheaper.

 

[Zelig]

Take into account exchange rates, and American universities are much cheaper.

I took into account exchange rates...

 

[warpus]

Only £6,000? Is that per year? That's ridiculously cheap!

Dude, I was paying $3,000 a term ($6,000 a year) here, and *that* was considered high. (although if you went into something like optometry, your tuition fees were way higher than that)

 

[Pangur Bán]

When people want to screw you over, you don't just line your ass up ... you fight back! Academia is always an easy target for politicians wanting to cut spending or transfer spending to the debt of the next generation [higher education is entirely state-funded in the UK]. What can these guys do?

Well, they can make it less their while. Protest, yes, smash buildings, yes, burn banks, sure ... if that's what it takes ... when you become the target of the powerful, the powerful become a legitimate target for you.

 

[Catharsis]

Student protests are all so predictable. They all go into the capital and march around for a bit with signs full of naughty words (some of which seem to be censored, bizarrely - perhaps to get more news coverage, but whoever was taking those photos above hasn't had any problem with the one student proudly displaying a certain C-word), then some of them start kicking in windows at random and then the police arrive and hit them over the head.

It's boring. The fact that there was a protest is making me less interested in this story.

If I were in charge of these protests, all of the students would have dressed up as tramps and gone into the streets of London to beg for change to pay their fees. It would've been an avant-garde masterpiece.

(Full marks to whoever threw that computer, though. That is suitably weird to attract my attention.)

 

[BCLG100]

Only £6,000? Is that per year? That's ridiculously cheap!

That's the minimum in some cases. It's double what the current fees are, which are in turn roughly three times what was being paid by students up to 2005 and again, as Paradigm stated was something that was free for those a couple of decades ago. In addition to that the US has an incredible amount of scholarships and grants in comparison to the UK, including the proposed introduction of increased grants for the poor and also allowing funding through companies.

How will those students attempting to study an Arts degree going to afford it?! No company like BP/glaxo etc will fund research into what Mark Twain was thinking when he wrote or just why Hitler decided to invade the USSR. It's also odd when compared to Scotland, supposedly part of the same country, that Scottish nationals get their fees entirely paid for.

It's not so much the money either, the fees will be astronomical and I don't know how my sisters will be able to fund it, it's the simple fact that the Lib Dems bald face lied to, probably, their most active and vociferous campaigners; the students. They stated in April they would not raise fees and yet here we are.

 

[bhsup]

...fund research into what Mark Twain was thinking when he wrote or just why Hitler decided to invade the USSR...

Mind you, not really my business, y'all do what you want. But that said, why in the hell should anyone fund that. If a student wants to study stuff like that, let him/her do it on their own dime. If there is going to be funding for higher education, let it be for teachers, physicians, engineers, etc. Not 18th century French poet studies and underwater basketweaving.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Mind you, not really my business, y'all do what you want. But that said, why in the hell should anyone fund that. If a student wants to study stuff like that, let him/her do it on their own dime. If there is going to be funding for higher education, let it be for teachers, physicians, engineers, etc. Not 18th century French poet studies and underwater basketweaving.

We should pay for it because we are getting advanced intellectual skills, and and people with the kind of critical and evaluative thinking that protects democratic societies against total domination by wealthy elites.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Only £6,000? Is that per year? That's ridiculously cheap!

That's about seven times as high as the tuition fees that were introduced in several German states during the past 5 years, and many Germans tudents were up in arms about it.
Hesse has abolished them again and North Rhine-Westphalia will do so next year.

...with the kind of critical and evaluative thinking that protects democratic societies against total domination by wealthy elites.

That's really not something worth protecting for the people in charge.

 

[Counterclaw]

Well, they can make it less their while. Protest, yes, smash buildings, yes, burn banks, sure ... if that's what it takes ... when you become the target of the powerful, the powerful become a legitimate target for you.

So, your argument is that it is better to smash buildings and burn banks than to ask someone to pay higher tuition?

 

[Bucephalus]

This is just the beginning. The Tories and their Liberal lap dogs have declared war on the working class, the poor, the sick, the unemployed and the disabled, not just the students. It's the duty of every man and woman of conscience to rise up and fight this injustice.

Personally, I hope Cameron and Clegg and all their cronies die screaming of cancer.

 

[Gabryel Karolin]

6000£ is a lot of money, many people, especially young people, cannot afford that. I feel alot more grateful for my free €300 a month now .