There is no question that the abolition of the up-front fee is an improvement on the flat-rate fee paid at the start of each year. We would prefer for all students to be treated equally and to be treated like adults - and for the money that universities top slice from top-up fees for poorer students to be spent on bursaries for living costs rather than bursaries for top-up fees That would be a fairer way to go forward.. This concession, which has been trailed for weeks, should help to buy off the Labour rebels, or at least enough of them to ensure the Bill passes. But the concession makes no sense if one accepts the logic of the Government's arguments.
07/11 - 09/11 Shop for Def Leppard Tickets staging in DTE Energy Music Theatre, MGM Grand Garden Arena. Def Leppard is staging in Clarkston, Las Vegas and New Orleans. Def Leppard tickets
08/11 - 10/11 Procure Incubus Tickets playing in Charter One Pavilion At Northerly Island, Comcast Center. Incubus is playing in Chicago, Mansfield and Phoenix. Incubus tickets
06/11 - 08/11 Attain Jimmy Buffett Tickets playing in Riverbend Music Center, Susquehanna Bank Center. Jimmy Buffett is playing in Cincinnati, Camden and Bridgeview. Jimmy Buffett tickets
If people don't have to make any contribution towards fees until they are adults and earning at least £15,000, which is what is planned, is it fair that those who came from less well-off families pay nothing while the well-born have to pay off a fees bill of £9,000? Imagine two youths at Leeds University studying law Both are ambitious and want to work for City law firms. The Secretary of State for Education, Charles Clarke, made it clear yesterday, when confronted by an irate mum at a school in west London, that ministers wanted the universities to recycle one-third of the top-up fee money they receive from better-off students to those from disadvantaged families. Last year there were only nine successful software engineering applicants in the UK, but this year it was a far healthier 58.. The news that the Government is to exempt between 30 and 35 per cent of students from the lowest-income families from having to pay top-up fees will greatly enhance the chances of the Bill becoming law. Dr Main says the "pointy head brigade" at school tend to be boys, although women graduates do extremely well.
(At Southampton, on the other hand, the number of British female computer applicants has doubled this year, with no obvious explanation.)Yet, while fewer students are applying for computing subjects at degree or HND level, there has been a marked increase in those pursuing them at full-time foundation level. More universities are now offering foundation degrees, and this year accepted computer science applicants were up by 243 per cent. Sadly, however, there has not been an increase in women applicants. The universities of Teesside and Plymouth say computing is one of their growth areas and there have been no problems with recruitment.Dr Andrew Main, head of computing at Bournemouth University, says there has been only a slight drop in applicants, which could be because the university has recently raised the entry requirements.Bournemouth students see computing as a strong career move, says Dr Main, offering mobility and a wide range of future jobs, whether as a "techie" or project manager.
