Nine Ways to Reduce the Cost of University

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With all 123 British universities and colleges currently planning to raise their undergraduate tuition fees to at least £6,000 per year from 2012, and with the majority planning on charging the maximum amount permitted of £9,000, what are the options for British students who want to study but who cannot afford it?

The following are legal, practical and worth considering.

1. Study in Continental Europe

Under EU rules, residents of member states who are accepted onto degree programmes anywhere in Europe pay only the local tuition fee of the country whose university they study at.

Since undergraduate course fees are significantly lower in some parts of Europe compared with the UK, this could be an attractive option. The good news is that a growing number of European universities are offering degree courses delivered in English.

Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden are leading the way in seeking to draw English-speaking students into their fold. This year, for instance, Dutch universities are running over 1,500 Bachelor, Master and PhD programmes in English. Tuition fees start at €1,700 for EU students (approximately £1,500). Leiden University currently rates as a top international centre for the study of the humanities.

Don't forget that Ireland, despite its economic troubles, is covered by the same EU rule and contains several English-language universities. Undergraduate fees in Eire are currently paid by the Irish government for all EU nationals and, if you're smart enough to gain admission, Trinity College Dublin is, of course, a world-class university.

2. Consider the north of England and Wales

If you have to pay tuition fees, you might want to explore reducing your living costs. Small towns in the north of England and north and west Wales will have lower living costs - from rent to food and transport. Over the life of a three or four-year degree, these savings in outgoings could add up to a significant sum.

The Universities of Cumbria, Central Lancashire, Aberystwyth and Bangor, for instance, are all in cheaper parts of the country.  Not to mention the University of Newcastle and Northumbria University.  Durham (good luck!) is not as cheap as some of its neighbouring areas, but rents are a lot less than in London or the south east.

3. Study part-time

A significant change in student funding, which has received little media coverage in the controversy over tuition fees, is that from 2012, part-time students will be eligible for exactly the same levels of student loans and grants as full-time students.

This means that, unlike at present, from next academic year, it will be much easier to study part-time while working as well. Although many full-time students already try and work, studies show that there is a relationship between hours worked in paid employment and class of degree achieved. Part-time students will face less pressure as they combine work with study - and may actually benefit in the long run from keeping a hand in the job market while they gain qualifications in the process.

4. Apply for a funded course

Despite the gloom and doom surrounding student finances, there are still organisations which will pay you to go to university. These include the NHS, the armed forces, and various industries ranging from engineering to journalism.

Certain degree courses attract funding automatically - some social work degrees, teacher training in certain subjects, as well as medical and dental courses (if only for part of the course).

5. Explore Bursaries, Grants and Scholarships

It's also worth looking carefully at whether a particular university offers its own financial support packages to certain types of students on certain courses. For example, some less prestigious universities will offer bursaries of up to £2,000 to students with high A Level grades - who might not otherwise consider that specific institution. Lancaster University is one of many offering this on selected undergraduate courses. Others will give an automatic bursary to students who are eligible for the full maintenance grant. Sussex University, for instance, pays this directly to the student if their parents' annual income is below £25,000.

There are also additional grants that can be applied for - from the university itself or from a range of charitable bodies or professional institutions. The Educational Grants Directory may sell for £90 on Amazon, but you can get it for free form your local library. A day spent researching and filling in applications may yield valuable financial returns.

6. Consider a Foundation Degree

Although a three or four-year degree may be traditional, a two-year foundation degree could be just as useful, depending on what your plans are after graduation.

With some foundation degrees having a vocational dimension, this is a very viable way in to your chosen career path - with the option to add a third year and convert into a full bachelors' degree, or to do a post-graduate course later on in your career.

7. Live at home

Although the prospect of three more years at home with mum and dad may not be the future you (or they!) dreamed of, it is worth considering the sobering fact that even before the tuition fee rise, 40% of women and 60% of men lived at home between the ages of 20 and 24. 

So, it may happen anyway. If so, it's at least worth considering whether getting a a degree and saving thousands of pounds in rent is the worst way of spending those years.

Enough said.

8. Earn below the re-payment threshold after graduation

It has been estimated that up to 80% of female graduates will never repay their student loans. The loan only becomes repayable when the graduate is earning over £21,000 per year. In addition, all loans are cancelled after 30 years of graduation.

The lower (and variable) rates of income generally earned by women mean that this combination of lower income and the passing of time will result in many women never repaying the loan in full.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this economic reality, it is worth putting this information in the mix when planning ahead.

By the way, the tax and allowance system in the UK means that it's much "easier" to earn less taxable income if you're self-employed. Just saying. 

9. Combine the above

By mixing some of the above options, we may be seeing the way that university may look for increasing numbers of British students. That will be a part-time foundation degree, completed while working, based in mid-Wales or Amsterdam, and funded by the RAF.

Have fun!

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Related articles

• Get more study for your money inside the Eurozone (independent.co.uk)
• 10 Useful Articles about the Tuition Fees Increase (universitiesuk.wordpress.com)

Education, Skill Sharing, Self Learning and Tuition Fees in England

A few thoughts have been going round my head recently centred around the theme of education. Not too surprising, I suppose, since I earn my living by helping children aged three to seventeen to develop their potential through self learning, since my wife has been a teacher all her working life, since my father is a university professor and my brother is a university lecturer. Learning, in a number of different aspects, features large in my own life and background.

This week, education came back into the political spotlight in the UK in a big way with the publication of the Browne Review on the future of higher education funding in England. The report, which looks likely to shape the policies of the current coalition government, proposes a "shake up" (why does public policy always need to be shaken? Why can't it be planned, and thought through strategically?) in the way that higher education is to be funded in the coming years.

The Review's headline recommendation is to allow universities to charge more for their courses - up to £7,000 per year for an undergraduate programme.

One consequence of this, if the proposal is adopted as government policy , is that poorer children will be de-motivated from attending university (in my opinion) despite low-interest loans for students from low-income families.

It is difficult for government ministers to appreciate, since many of them are millionaires, how terrifying the idea of debt is in any form to an 18-year old from a family who have no savings, who live from hand to mouth and who make a living in the informal sector. The tuition fee amount is not the issue. The requirement to become indebted is the issue.

Coinciding with the publication of Browne, I read a fascinating report by Latitude Research and Shareable magazine titled The New Sharing Economy. The report's thesis is that online sharing, of digital media and goods, is proving a catalyst for offline sharing of tangible commodities such as cars, workspace and household utilities. The transition, in its infancy, is described as being "from an ownership to an access economy" in which "use" will prove more important than "possession."

Applying this idea to my own sphere of education - and inspired by several examples I have come across from the US - I have been thinking for some time about running a "skill-share" day here in Bristol, primarily among families I work with through my business and others I know in the wider community.

A skill share is an event at which people with knowledge or abilities pass on what they know to others who would like to learn them, in a mutual, non-fee paying environment. Everyone teaches; everyone learns.

Thinking about the families I currently work with, whose main earners include doctors, warehouse operatives, professors, taxi drivers, cleaners and small business owners, I have been amazed when I consider how many skills they possess. They speak over twenty languages between them, they can cook, change plugs, programme computers, break dance, do business accounts, fix cars, fund raise, run marketing campaigns, analyze ancient texts, play musical instruments, create software, make furniture, grow food, negotiate, manage, repair cycles, administer first aid, and create works of art. And that's just for starters.

A skill share would bring together - for a day, on a drop-in basis - people who want to share "how to" with people who want to learn "how." I imagine a rolling programme throughout a Saturday, with maybe four or five sessions running at the same time, for forty minutes at a time. People attend what they would like to and come and go as they wish. The day could benefit from some tasty food and drink served throughout, to add to the social ambiance of the event.

As this was going round my head, I stumbled upon this fantastic video by Sir Ken Robinson, placing today's education practices in their historic and economic context and suggesting the direction of new paradigms needed in education if the many are not to be excluded from the learning process in the future. I hope I'm not exaggerating when I say that this short video is the best introductory piece of education philosophy I have ever come across. Brilliant.













Paradigms are notoriously difficult to change, and if they do change, the process usually begins with small groups of visionary individuals on the fringe, rather than with major changes at the centre. Visionaries such as Dr Sugata Mitra, who wanted to test a hypothesis:

The acquisition of basic computing skills by any set of children can be achieved through incidental learning provided the learners are given access to a suitable computing facility, with entertaining and motivating content and some minimal (human) guidance.

By placing an Internet-ready computer in the outer wall of his office in Delhi, which enabled children from the nearby slum to access it without supervision or restriction, Dr Mitra's discovery was that the children taught themselves how to read and develop computing and maths skills unaided by a teacher.

Self-learning is at the heart of the Kumon method of learning, in which I am an Instructor. I don't formally teach any of the 100 children I see every week. They teach themselves, with appropriate material and appropriate guidance, lightly given.

I guess the various strands of this rambling post come together in the following convictions: that traditional industrial-style education is creaking at the seams, that the on-going pressure on public finances is going to make this model even more difficult to sustain, and increasingly difficult for many to access at higher education levels. Beyond this, grass-roots community-based skill sharing, and carefully conceived self-learning programmes, may provide some of the ways through for discovering the new paradigms needed in our age. It goes without saying that the Internet provides a platform for these two strands - self-learning and free learning - to come together massively, and that we have only begun to scratch the surface of how these could combine in the future.

What do you think?

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Related articles

• Browne review: Universities warned to expect £4.2bn cuts (guardian.co.uk)
• Funding cut, fees up and higher education for sale (independent.co.uk)
• Tuition fees free market 'unfair' (bbc.co.uk)