Students react to surprise rise of university fees

Express & Star

Students up and down the country woke up earlier this week to news that they're being slammed into even more debt for pursing their dreams from next year - and today have made their feelings known.

Transcript

00:00My name's Sally, I'm 33 years old from Willinghall and I'm currently studying Adult Nursing.

00:06I'm in my third year and I'll finish in March.

00:11The announcement of the rise is disappointing, it's the same as everything, everything's going

00:19up and it is going to put people off coming to study. I mean I'm from a working class background

00:26and the thought of university probably seems impossible, and it does seem impossible to some

00:31now, but it is doable. It's one of them, so I'm more than willing to pay it because I'm getting

00:39the career at the end of it, which is the ultimate aim you know, to become a nurse,

00:46so I wouldn't change it in that respect. It is difficult, I'm a mother, I've got two children,

00:54and so to leave and already have the debt at the end is difficult, but again like I say,

01:02it is a price that I'm willing to pay to become a nurse at the end of it. It's been a dream

01:07since I was young, but obviously I became a mother quite young, so I'll put it on the

01:14back burner for a bit, so doing it now, I've got no regrets doing it. I wouldn't say to

01:22anybody that's thinking of joining university, yeah it's scary the thought of doing and taking

01:28on the loans, and I wish there was more help from the government, but I'd say chase your dream,

01:36it'll always work out in the end. So my name's Luke, I'm from Telford, I'm 19 and I'm studying

01:41health assessment. Cost of university as it stands I'd say a bit pricey, but it's one of them, it's

01:46pricey already, it's pricey, it's pricey, and then I think going forwards, if it's going up yeah.

01:53It's going up yeah, as of April next year. So if it's going up I think it's just what it is,

01:58it's already expensive so I can't get much worse. If it's going up, as long as it's not like you

02:02pay and say they're doubling it, tripling it, whatever, I think if they're putting it up say

02:07over a grand over all three years it's not awful, but I think it's already pricey. My name is

02:12Oye Ndiye Owole, presently I'm doing MSc Artificial Intelligence, I came from Nigeria

02:18and this is my third module that I'm doing presently. And yourself? Yeah my name is Ido

02:24Jolobi, I'm from Nigeria, studying data science, this is my last module, I'm by God's grace

02:30next week I'll start my projects. My opinion about the recent increase in the tuition fee

02:37is just that the stress is being put on universities because of the recent policy

02:42by the UK government to restrict the numbers of international students entering into the country,

02:47and that is where the universities, that is how they make a chunk of their money to run the system.

02:53If the money is no more coming from international students, then they have to increase the tuition

02:57fee for few people coming to the country and for home students as well. So the stress,

03:03there will be a problem for students paying their school fees because majority of students

03:07are experiencing difficulty paying the initial fee, in terms of adding to the amount. So my

03:11opinion is just that they should just peg the amount at a reasonable price so that people can

03:16continue to study their course without dropping out of the school. My opinion is, you know,

03:21just have to be considerate because back to, I mean, back there in Africa, from country where

03:28I'm coming from, where I come from, you know, financial constraint and the situation of things

03:36in Nigeria, you know, I should hold on people not to come on, I mean, to study in UK. So if they

03:44increase the tuition fee, it will affect many people coming to UK to study and it will affect

03:54this course. My name is Sam, I am 29 years old, I live in Nottingham and I'm studying at

04:04Wolverhampton for Building Control and latency. To be fair, my thoughts on an increase in uni fees

04:10is a bit redundant. I mean, my first degree, I've got over £40,000 worth of debt that I'll never

04:16pay back. So why are we digging such a hole for something that I've never used? I've had a degree

04:23that's worthless. I feel like they're putting the price up isn't going to achieve anything if they're

04:28not going to recuperate the cost. So why make people stress about a gigantic uni debt that

04:35is increasing? It's probably going to increase even more when they're never going to get the

04:39money back. My opinions on if it is fair or isn't fair is, either which way, it puts a lot of stress

04:47on people having that amount of debt, being so young, not knowing what you're wanting to do,

04:51and you may not even use that piece of paper in the long run anyway. So realistically, putting it

04:58up to £100 isn't going to make that much of a difference, but you still see that number go up,

05:03the interest goes up every year, it just doesn't make sense.

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