MJRyder.net

The Death of Higher Education

£9,000 of fees per year…

I can’t help but think this could well be the beginning of the end… the end of my plan to study for a PhD in English Literature.

With fees set at £9,000 I certainly won’t be able to afford the cost.

And what people so often neglect to mention in this great ‘Tuition Fee’ debate is the additional cost of living associated with studying for a higher education course.

I received my loan statement the other day. According to the Student Loan Company, I owe £35,000.

THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND POUNDS.

Ten years ago you could buy a house in Ramsgate for that sort of money.

£35,000 and for what? 50% of my lectures were a waste of time, and while I loved the other 50%, no way was I getting value for money for my £3,000 a year. And now the state has the cheek to declare I should pay up to £9,000 for any future studies!

What on earth am I supposed to do?

According to this oh-so-messed-up world, I should leave work, have kids, get a council house, claim benefits, and waste my life away watching ‘Loose Women’ and Jeremy Kyle. I’d certainly have more disposable income that way!

I wonder why I bother sometimes…

Cameron or Clegg?

I was pleasantly surprised to receive this rather lovely flick book through the post this week:

‘Cameron or Clegg?’ is a beautifully designed little novelty available for only £2.99 – the perfect present for the disgruntled student. Featuring a cleverly thought-out scene in which David Cameron morphs into Nick Clegg and Nick Clegg morphs into David Cameron on the opposite side, the arrival of this lovely little flick book was well-timed indeed given the current tuition fees situation.

Many thanks to everyone at New Holland publishing for their thought and consideration in sending me this lovely little book.

Hijacked

Photos have recently been released of the main suspects in the violence at the student protests this week. You don’t need to be an expert in physiognomy to tell these are not the faces of honest student protesters. Anarchist no-hopers one and all, if any one of these idiots is a genuine student, I will quite literally eat my hat.

EMA

There has been some comment on various social networking sites of late regarding the proposed cut in EMA. As a disgruntled student of Thanet College at the time EMA was launched I can say from personal experience that EMA was one of the banes of my time at college. Not only did all the degenerate oxygen-thieves on my maths course spend all their EMA on drugs, but they also attended (and ruined) every single lesson so they could claim their drug money at the end of the week. And to think I could never claim EMA as I was ‘too well qualified’! Farcical!