Well, the students
didn’t convince parliament or the House of Lords to rethink
the student loans higher fees.
The Student
Loans Company who administer the scheme has been branded a
disgrace. During 2009 they took an extra £9m from students
after they had paid off their student loans, this year they have
taken an extra £15m from students, after they had paid off
their loans. The S.L.C. can then take up to 11 months to make
a partial or full repayment of the amount they have overcharged
students.
The demonstrations were on the whole orderly; a minority vented
their anger by smashing treasury windows, something that cannot
be condoned. The police allowed the royal car to drive passed
disgruntled protestors, resulting in damage to the Royal car.
Prince Charles and his wife didn’t appear to be hurt, and
continued with their official engagement.
The protest was mostly about the austerity packages in general;
very few of the protestors would have been personally affected
by the tuition fee rises. We can consider ourselves fortunate,
in so far as the demonstrations were very low key, compared to
those in Greece.
There were plenty of people going on record,
saying that they felt it wasn’t up to them to pay for the
student fees. Most students would agree with this, it was the
severity of the increase, and the blatant attempt to re-establish
the upper class as being in control. The burden for paying for
the increased student fees will fall heavily on the middle and
working class, who will have to stump up the extra money the government
are giving to the universities, at a time of increased inflation,
increased unemployment, and with more hardship to come in January
when businesses are expected to increase food and basic necessities
by 10% under the guise of a 2.5% VAT increase.
The extra the taxpayer will have to pay for the tuition fees,
will ease a little when students start paying back their loans
in 3 to 5 years time. The government cut university money by 80%,
part of the money saved went to prop up the Irish banks in the
form of a £7b loan to Ireland. The interest charged to Ireland
is reputed to be 7%, against that currently charged to students
of 4.4%. As the higher loan repayments for students kick in the
rate is expected to rise to 7% plus. The figure is currently set
by the highest base rate of 5 un-named banks plus 1%, or the R.P.I.
whichever is lowest.
Interest
rate from September 2010 to August 2011
The interest rate on income contingent loans
will be 1.5 per cent from 1 September 2010 across the UK.
Between 1 September 2010 and 31 August 2011, the interest rate
may change because it is linked to the rates charged by high street
banks. The
rate will be the lower of the Retail Price Index (RPI) in
March 2010, or 1 per cent above the highest base rate of a nominated
group of banks. As March’s RPI was 4.4 per cent, the maximum
rate of interest you may be charged between 1 September 2010 and
31 August 2011 is 4.4 per cent.
This rate applies to all income contingent loan customers including
students currently studying at university or college.
At 7% interest, if no payment is made, the debts
will double every 10 years. The Government has already said the
majority of students won’t be able to pay all of their debt
off. The up side is that the extra earnings achieved by having
a degree, generate more tax revenue to prop up pensions.
According
to QS the Uk has 4 universities in the top 10 of the 500 universities
ranked world wide, with Cambridge being number 1. University College
London came in at no.4, with Oxford at no.6, and Imperial College
London at 7. Last year Oxford and Imperial were joint 5th. The
other 6 places in the top ten were taken by the USA.
Scottish MPs voted for the increase to English
student fees. The increased fees paid by English students going
to Scottish Universities, will allow the Scottish parliament to
leave fees for Scottish residents going to Scottish universities
at £0. This is Fair Government that the English tax payer
stumps up this money. Ireland, as part of its austerity package
has increased fees by 50% from the previous €1200.
Northern Ireland has asked the UK government to reduce Corporation
Tax to generate more jobs in Northern Ireland, David Cameron agreed,
no mention of the same stimulus for England.
Lord
Browne, the former head of BP, was commissioned by the government
to produce a fair report on tuition fees he said in response to
this “Our higher education
system is world-renowned but too often it enshrines the power
of universities and not the power of students. These reforms will
put students in the driving seat of a revolutionary new system.”
Sally
Hunt, the General Secretary of the University and College
Union, said ‘We have no faith
in the Tories’ muddled plans to fund additional student
places through bonuses for students or families rich enough to
pay their loan debt off quickly.’
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Vic Farron
RFT Express.
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