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Student's protest and Royalty feels the tremors...

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  1. #21

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    Well gee, even the most expensive royalty in Europe had to "suffer" austerity measures...They cut their expenditures to a "mere" 38 million Pounds. How savage of students to inconvenience them after they've made such sacrifices...

    dear giant and dear giant like this.

  2. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by gilleshk:
    Well gee, even the most expensive royalty in Europe had to "suffer" austerity measures...They cut their expenditures to a "mere" 38 million Pounds. How savage of students to inconvenience them after they've made such sacrifices...
    Well gee whiz! Oh I'm sorry, I guess it's okay for the students to terrorise them in their car while laughing like idiots, I mean.....that is what you're suggesting, isn't it, Gilles?

  3. #23

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    I'm neither sympathetic to the royals nor the student... They have a right to protest however those who went a little too far should be punished appropriately. I can see the royals being excellent target as they are high profile and even though they are not necessarily unpopular, there are a significant number of UK citizen that are not happy with the high cost of maintaining their lifestyle(and charity events) particularly in hard economic times.


  4. #24

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    OK a University scholar enters the fray

    Firstly I have to admit that not only did I get a free University degree but also, thanks to a very rare research council grant in the area of business, a free Masters together with a very significant grant to live on and keep my family while studying. Also as a youth I was not averse to a bit of (sometimes violent) direct action myself. There was a nice photo of me in the Guardian occupying the roof of Eton.

    Still, personally I do not have a strong objection to the increase in fees as long as they are not paid up front. I do object to the fact that the net effect on Unis is a reduction in income (i.e. the fee increase does not cover the reduction in government support). UK universities not only provide the high earners, and hence high taxpayers and income generators, of the future but also contribute significant revenue to the country via overseas students. To reduce their income is counterproductive.

    As to whether the protests will damage the image of the students and so reduce support for their cause, well the popular view in the UK is that academics never work and students spend all their time getting pissed (see above) so there is not that much support anyway which is why UK academics are relatively low paid. I support the right to protest of the students and understand their anger, particularly at the Lib Dems who gained a large share of the student vote when their candidates for election signed a pledge not to increase student fees, then voted for it once in power.

    Last edited by hullexile; 11-12-2010 at 08:54 AM.

  5. #25

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    I of course support the students having a god son at Imperial college doing science theory. I know exactly his mums finances and what she has had to do as a single mum to find him lodgings and tuition fees.
    Its an outrageous leap of fees. Parents are already having to re-mortgage just to keep there children at university. My poor godson has to work for a Japanese Bank as trader just to keep his apartments in Kensington, what next do they want students to pay the countries deficit?

    What a start for them all, it seems they the British always think the next generation will pay fo today, big news maybe they wont be able to afford it given what you left them!!!!! Roll on a UK not much different from Ireland's difficulties right now.


  6. #26

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    I'm still confused over the workings of this thing. News reports suggest that students (or their parents) won't have to pay any increased fees 'upfront', and will actually be protected from having to pay back the money until they are earning at a substantially higher threshold than at present. Thereafter their repayment rate would effectively be the same. I might be missing something but I haven't seen any reports that demonstrate how the rise in fees is going to prevent people from entering higher education. Given the clear strength of opinion of those closer to the debate than I, however, I get the feeling that I've probably missed something crucial and I would be grateful if someone could point me to a weblink that explains it all a bit better.