Comments on: Student life

By: ChrisD

ChrisD — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:36:32 +0000

I totally agree. I didn’t get my degree at the ‘usual’ time, I started it but after 18 months or so, had to leave as I couldn’t afford to stay there. I finally did mine through the OU in order that I could earn at the same time. Both my sons are now at Uni. If we had needed to state the we parents have degrees already they would have been discriminated against, assumptions would have been made about our financial background/’class’ that would have been totally irrelevant.
We do try to support our sons but our debts are mounting up, because we want them not to have to leave because they can’t pay their rent, as I had had to do. The student loanis not enough. It is calculated only on parent’s income, not outgoings are considered at all, it is assumed that parents will contribute, some will, some won’t andsome can’t. My sons work, when they can, but medical students get less and less time in which they can get paid work as the years go on. The whole system is very much geared towards offspring relying on their parents and DEBT! It should be one that encourages independance from an early age. That can only be better for everyone.

By: Alice Shepaprd

Alice Shepaprd — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:10:15 +0000

My mum was at Cambridge (not Magdalene College, though) in the early 60’s. Her parents were on high incomes - never mind that they’d pretty much abandoned her and gave her nothing; her friends, whose parents were far poorer but far more generous, got much higher grants than she did!
My parents helped me out a lot (luckily - too many hours of lectures to have time for a job) but I hated feeling dependent and incompetent. And doubtless those whose parents couldn’t help had far worse things to complain about.

By: dizzy

dizzy — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 09:50:20 +0000

You and me both!