Edduekayshunn

It's been almost 2 months since myself and fellow students could start re-applying for free monies, and it got me thinking. It's a question that has been on my mind for quite some time now, ever since the news was announced really, about the govenments view on higher education and the funding towards it. My question is simple so if you can answer it feel free, the question is thus:

What..........the HELL do the government think they are doing?

They have cut the budget by £449 million (or £51 million less than half a billion to give some context) and yet are still urging people to go to uni. This is going to have one hell of a knock on effect. The reason why I am ranting here is because the govenment (ok, I use that term too freely, it's not the whole government I'm angry at here, just the Higher Education Funding Council) have decided that they need to save money due to the economy. By saving money they can help rebuild the economy.

Bollocks I say!

By making more cuts it means that universities are going to have to cut the amount of places available to study, and even stop some of their courses altogether. On top of that universities will also put their fees up. Which is bad as most students struggle to live on their loans as it is (when you get books, equipment, rent etc.)

The repercussions of this decision to cut costs will spread out across a couple of generations. Less students means less skills being taught, which means less qualified people which means there are not enough doctors, nurses, scientists, teachers, business managers (both domestic and overseas) etc. I'm willing to bet that in the future the HEFC and possibly even Prime Minister Bruce Dickinon will be complaining saying there are not enough qualified people in this country doing important jobs and we should be encouraged to go to university and higher education.

If I want to be encouraged to do something I want to have the reassurance that what I'm going to do is going to be long term. Hell, I've already had a scare this year when I found out the course I'm doing was looked at as one of the courses the university might have wanted to cut. If they did, it would mean I've wasted 2 years here and got nothing to show for it. I Probably wouldn't have been able to transfer my grades and I would have to start from scratch.

I'm willing to make a bet of £5 that, in the future, the government (or the HEFC) blames the people for not embracing higher education and makes us feel ashamed.

Why only £5? I'm a student, it's all I can afford.

C.

*ninja edit* If you see any flaws above, feel free to comment on where I went wrong. If you're going to be an ignorant sod and completely deflate this post, well, I hope you lose both your arms and get an itchy bum-hole.