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44k in debt....
 

[Closed] 44k in debt....

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£44k, normal degree 3yrs. Tuition fees 3x£9k = £27k
So lets call it £6k a year to live off. That is perfectly doable.

Rent would consume around £4k p.a. Still think £2k p.a. for everything else is doable?


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:27 pm
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GrahamS - Member

Ahh... so it is 44k of purely theoretical magical debt that doesn't really exist and never actually needs paying off?

pretty much, yes.

but most importantly, the repayments are less, by £50/month than they were.

that's £600/year, can i transfer my old student debt to the new system please? - i'll gladly accept the increased debt, because as has been mentioned once or twice, it'll makes no difference (other than reduced repayments)


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:27 pm
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Why do people go to Uni?

[b]Because there is a glass ceiling above their heads otherwise.[/b]

I'm applying for a MSc course, not because I want to [i]from an academic perspective[/i], but because I [i]have to[/i] in order for my career to progress.

Without a degree, my years of experience (and subsequent responsibilities) mean naff-all. I even applied (out of curiosity) for the most junior position in my area of IT, neglecting to include in my CV I had already done that job back in 2005. No degree? Sorry, you're not qualified for this position.

Without a degree/masters, there is no "up" from where I am now - and seemingly, no "down" either, which is worrying.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:31 pm
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The poorer you are less you have to pay.
More importantly there are staggering amount of jobs which never required a degree in the past. I know someone who left school at 16 and is an area manager for a bank. All her qualification she picked up at the bank ie they were directly related to her job. Lots of jobs you used to learn on the job. It seems rather a waste of resources to be teaching people things they will never need.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:31 pm
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25 yrs ago a £400 student overdraft was a big deal, and your annual student Loan of £500 was used for a pc or to help out with [s]beer[/s] living expenses and if I recall had to be paid back in 5 years 😆


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:34 pm
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[quote=ahwiles ]can i transfer my old student debt to the new system please?

You would presumably also happily triple your "debt" in order to do so?

(I'm assuming here that you're not a particularly high earner, so won't be paying off the debt).


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:34 pm
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double post - somebody please report to mods?


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:34 pm
 sbob
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ransos - Member

Rent would consume around £4k p.a. Still think £2k p.a. for everything else is doable?

Should be able to get rent below that, I pay that living in a nice part of Cambridgeshire, but yes, I think it's doable because I do it.
Add on a job for the holidays and it should be no problem.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:35 pm
 DrJ
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Rent would consume around £4k p.a.

My daughter is at uni in That London Tarn. 4k pa rent looks like a dream to me !! 🙁


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:36 pm
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aracer - Member

You would presumably also happily triple your "debt" in order to do so?

yes, happily, where do i sign? It'll save me £15,000, in actual money.

(I'm assuming here that you're not a particularly high earner, so won't be paying off the debt).

correct, exactly average salary, that's an Engineering degree for you.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:36 pm
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Without a degree, my years of experience (and subsequent responsibilities) mean naff-all. I even applied (out of curiosity) for the most junior position in my area of IT, neglecting to include in my CV I had already done that job back in 2005

Your contradicting yourself you applied for a job which you were qualified (via experience) for but didn't tell them and funnily enough they didn't give you the job! Honest!
Also you had done the job before therefore how did you get the job that you weren't qualified for?


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:37 pm
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We need a better educated work force, the question isn't whether more people should be going the question is whether we should subsidize higher education more.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:37 pm
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[quote=ahwiles ]that's an Engineering degree for you.

Ah yes - I too have one of those, and worked out I would be better off under the new system than the old (fortunately I'm old enough not to be on either).


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:38 pm
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Your contradicting yourself you applied for a job which you were qualified (via experience) for but didn't tell them and funnily enough they didn't give you the job! Honest!
Also you had done the job before therefore how did you get the job that you weren't qualified for?

I neglected to tell them I had done 1st line support work, but included the 2nd line, 3rd line, etc.

Lack of degree meant I didn't even match their minimum criteria for entry (regardless of experience)


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:39 pm
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Rent would consume around £4k p.a. Still think £2k p.a. for everything else is doable?

My rent (in 2004-2008) was £2500/yr for a room in Sheffield. And that came out of a £4k loan, and I actualy came out of uni with money in the bank (mostly saved from summer jobs and never spent).

So yup, £2k is plenty, £3.5k is even more.

Uni is still good VFM, just need to be bright and pick your course. Engineering, medicine, etc. University for people with B's and C's probably less so.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:40 pm
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There are alternatives that may (I stress may) bring education costs down. MOOC's are growing in popularity and the technology makes the long distance learning alternative more viable and appealing. Adults less engaged in new technology may find it hard to acclimatise but kids will find it more 'normal'.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:40 pm
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PS and she doesn't work for the coop bank where qualification are a disadvantage!


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:41 pm
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Surely payments START at £50/month

Just paid off my mortgage style loan after a million years (including a few years of downplaying earnings for deferrment). Have to say I would think twice about going to Uni now the debt would certainly scare me off. Seems far more transactional these days, less about getting an education and more about getting a job. Very sad state of affairs.

ahwiles - you're talking rubbish


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:42 pm
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I was old enough to vote and I voted for the party that said they would never back the increase of tuition fees..

Well two parties have said that, and both did the opposite after the elections (2001 & 2010).

But the truth is, the people who this most effects directly in future, still can't vote.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:42 pm
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It is pretty terrible. But it's not quite had the effect we expected, the prediction was that it'd hammer admissions from lower income homes, not so much because of affordability but because of the whole spectre of debt thing- middle class people are just assumed to be more comfortable with scary sums of debt. In practice that doesn't seem to have happened, at least not for us, there does seem to be some truth that the lending facility is a playing field leveller- applications from lower income areas have actually increased a little. Mind you, we're doing more for widening access- more funding, more consideration during applications (and that extra funding largely comes from the higher income from fee-payers so it's a big feedback loop) and some say that we're actually seeing a longer term increase being suppressed a little, rather than a new increase. Frankly the statistical cases are easy to fiddle.

aracer - Member

No need, as under EU rules your kids will be able to go to Scottish unis under Scottish student finance system once Scotland is independent. Might be a fight for places, but living in Scotland won't help with that.

I'll field this one 😉 Actually, the outcome isn't decided at all but what you describe is the least likely outcome and isn't taken seriously by the industry.

The 2 most likely outcomes:
1) The legal case for special circumstances is succesful. Fundamentally exemptions are allowed where legislation would bring an essential service into risk. Some folks seem to think this is going to work, I'm not, it's the scottish fee-free system that's at risk not the university sector. So the alternative...

2) The incredibly simple one, make it free at point of sale via automatic scholarships so while scottish/resident students are still officially paying fees, a fee abatement or scholarship for the same amount is made for every qualifying student. This is a system already widely used for PG funding via the SFC so the infrastructure all exists, it's really just a process change. I bet 10 scottish salmondollars this is what will happen.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:43 pm
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Well £27k of it certainly is - the other bit is nothing to do with tuition fees

If it makes no difference to your take home pay or to your ability to get a mortgage, what other difference do you imagine it would make to family finances?

Makes no difference to your take home pay... [i]unless[/i] you earn more than £21,000 (when last I heard [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20442666 ]the national average wage is £26,500[/url]).

Okay you have a long time to pay it off but it is still money directly out of your pocket when you are starting your career.

Banks certainly don't treat student loans the same as ordinary debt when assessing financial circumstances.

Perhaps not, but what about that other £17k worth of debt...?

I'm glad I graduated long before all this, but even [i]way[/i] back then I was still on pitiful student loans, four of us in a two bedroom flat, eating KwikSave "mince" and holding down two night jobs to pay my way.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:43 pm
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My rent (in 2004-2008) was £2500/yr for a room in Sheffield. And that came out of a £4k loan, and I actualy came out of uni with money in the bank (mostly saved from summer jobs and never spent).

So yup, £2k is plenty, £3.5k is even more.

You're way out of date. The cheapest self-catered halls at Sheffield are now more than £4k p.a.

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/accommodation/prospective/rents


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:45 pm
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Lack of degree meant I didn't even match their minimum criteria for entry (regardless of experience)

That's the dumb ass HR filter in full effect, and why I cajole all my minions to ensure they get certified. Don't give anyone an excuse to not interview you.
Although I agree a degree for a service desk job is just bollocks.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:45 pm
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Surely payments START at £50/month

Just for factual accuracy, payments start at 9% of earnings above £21K. So if you earn, for example, £25K you would be expected to pay 9% of £4K pa = £30pm.

If you earn less than £21K the amount you earn goes up by the current rate of inflation. By £41K pa earnings the interested accrued goes up to rate of inflation plus 3%.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:49 pm
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Anyway, the staggering thing about the tripling of tuition fees is that it isn't significantly reducing the cost of higher education to the taxpayer.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/21/tuition-fees-former-tory-adviser-government-maths-wrong


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:49 pm
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the national average wage is £26,500).

Average graduate satarting sallary in 2013 was £29,500 IIRC, so that's a 9% retrun on an investment of £44k, that you may not even have to pay back if it doesn't give you a return!


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:49 pm
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One daughter university degree 32 £35,000 a year
second daughter no degree £50,000 a year and a company BMW [u][b] and neither of them will give me any money surely the bank of Dad should be paid first. [/b] [/u]


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:50 pm
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.thisisnotaspoon - Member
the national average wage is £26,500).
Average graduate satarting sallary in 2013 was £29,500 IIRC, so that's a 9% retrun on an investment of £44k, that you may not even have to pay back if it doesn't give you a return

I think that £29,000 should be after tax?


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:53 pm
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thestabiliser - Member

ahwiles - you're talking rubbish

example?

graduates at our place start on £23k, that's £2k over the £21k threshold.

they pay back £200/year, that's £17/month.

(ok, it's 9% over the threshold, so it's actually less than i'm suggesting)


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:53 pm
 gogg
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Graham S - But it was the Tories that decide to triple the fees. "

Following the precedent set by their Labour counterparts, who introduced them and tripled them within 5 years of their introduction, despite a manifesto which said that they wouldn't.

Once introduced fees will only go one way....

VAT was a tax on luxury goods when it was introduced, is heating and lighting your home a luxury???


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:53 pm
 sbob
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ransos - Member

You're way out of date. The cheapest self-catered halls at Sheffield are now more than £4k p.a.

So get a private house share for much less.
Unless you're telling me that accomodation around Sheffield is more costly than my nice part of Cambridgeshire, which I sincerely doubt.

Surely anyone who warrants a university education can work that out.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:53 pm
 gogg
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kelvin - But the truth is, the people who this most effects directly in future, still can't vote.

But shouldn't WE be voting for our kids futures? Not the baby boomers that really did "never have it so good"?

Our kids are effectively mortgaging their futures to pay for the retirements that their grandparents were promised.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:56 pm
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[quote=GrahamS ]Makes no difference to your take home pay... unless you earn more than £21,000 (when last I heard the national average wage is £26,500).

You've confused me now, Graham. By saying "mounting fees" and "what the Tories want." I assumed you were complaining about the fees being increased by the Tories, not them being introduced by Labour. Apologies if it's actually Tony you're having a go at. What the Tories have done with the fee system increases the take home pay for those on national average wage.

Perhaps not, but what about that other £17k worth of debt...?

The debt which is related to the abolition of grants rather than the introduction of tuition fees? Well I think you can actually blame that one on Facha, but it might even pre-date her.

I'm glad I graduated long before all this

Not in maths presumably?


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:57 pm
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sbob - Member

Unless you're telling me that accomodation around Sheffield is more costly than my nice part of Cambridgeshire, which I sincerely doubt.

probably not, but Sheffield has 2 good universities, and only a small part of the city is favoured by students, there's a lot of demand!


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:58 pm
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The average 29k graduate salary is calculated by looking at graduates entering graduate schemes and the like. It completely ignores the fact that many graduates will not be doing these sorts of jobs or be earning those sorts of wages even though the job they're doing might list a degree as a requirement.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 1:59 pm
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So get a private house share for much less.
Unless you're telling me that accomodation around Sheffield is more costly than my nice part of Cambridgeshire, which I sincerely doubt.

Surely anyone who warrants a university education can work that out.

So you'd have a first year undergrad try to organise a house share in a cesspit, in a town they don't know, where they don't know anybody?

Surely anyone who warrants a university education can work out the meaning of "misanthrope".


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 2:00 pm
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But shouldn't WE be voting for our kids futures? Not the baby boomers that really did "never have it so good"?

Our kids are effectively mortgaging their futures to pay for the retirements that their grandparents were promised.

My parents' generation had it much better than me. I had it much better than my kids will.

My solution is to save like hell so I can give them a start in life unburden by mountains of debt.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 2:01 pm
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New HMO rules in a lot of university cities mean it's not as simple to rent a house to share as it once was.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 2:02 pm
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Well, on a tangent slightly, I accumulated £21k of debt in my 20's. I consolodated it about 3 years ago to pay it off over 7 years, takes up a 1/3 of my wage. It has put a huge block on my life, I can't afford to live in my own place, go on expensive holidays etc. When it's gone, it'll be a huge huge weight off my shoulders. And what do I have to show for it? My bike and my camera - the rest was built up debt on cars and credit cards.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 2:02 pm
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thestabiliser - Member

ahwiles - you're talking rubbish

example?

graduates at our place start on £23k, that's £2k over the £21k threshold.

they pay back £200/year, that's £17/month.

(ok, it's 9% over the threshold, so it's actually less than i'm suggesting)

That's not in perpituity though is it? They will earn more and pay more as they move on and all they will have done in those early years will have been to mitigate some of the compound interest. So by the end of the grad scheme 44k could 45k(they will likely also be paying off debt from living expenses for a number of years too). Basically it's got to be paid back at some point, whci gives you less to save and less to spend. Those staying on middle incomes being worse affected by paying more for longer.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 2:03 pm
 gogg
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aracer - The debt which is related to the abolition of grants rather than the introduction of tuition fees? Well I think you can actually blame that one on Facha, but it might even pre-date her.

You can blame her for the reduction of grants, but the final means tested grants were finished off by Labour in '98, when they introduced full loans and the £1,000 a year tuition fees.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 2:03 pm
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[quote=thisisnotaspoon ]Average graduate satarting sallary in 2013 was £29,500 IIRC

Hmm - maybe I should delete the last 20 years of my CV and apply for graduate jobs. Oh hang on, I've just remembered I'm an engineer.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 2:03 pm
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Its sad that so many people see the only benefit of a good education as a higher earning potential.

Sometimes its fun just to learn stuff or, at postgrad level, contribute to the sum of human knowledge.

Can't do that anymore, unless you are already loaded.


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 2:04 pm
 sbob
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So you'd have a first year undergrad try to organise a house share in a cesspit, in a town they don't know, where they don't know anybody?

No, I'd have them do it in reasonable accommodation, there is no need to live in a cesspit.

Maybe kids these days need their arses wiping for them a bit more. 😕


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 2:05 pm
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[quote=st colin ]And what do I have to show for it? My bike and my camera - the rest was built up debt on cars and credit cards.

Sounds more worthwhile than a degree


 
Posted : 10/04/2014 2:05 pm
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