Student protests

[thebish]

errr... so on the one hand these students stand accused of:

chanting and waving banners! what a let down, if you gonna protest I want molotovs, riot police, upturned cars on fire...

and at the same time..

walking past my office about an hour or so since looked a) about 35 and b) like hardened crims - therefore swelling the numbers with those more intent on a scrap than on making a democratic point.

criticized for NOT rioting and also for mixing with those likely to riot....

[superjohnmcginlay]

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... ition_fees

Ooh. Exciting.

I'm just struggling at "students" and "from Bury". Fck, I know the expansion of HEC's and Poly's into Uni's has downgraded the term, but .... Bury ???

Note that they do this on Wednesday afternoons ... "sports time", or drinking time if you're a completely inept bastard.

FE students galore at Bury College, which I think is a pretty good college. Some HE doing HNC/HND courses - some validated by Uni of Bolton and convertible to degrees by completing a 'top-up' year at Bolton Uni.

As EL helpfully explained some are protesting about the withdrawal of the Education Maintenance Allowance of £30 a week (means tested, based on parental income) available for post-16 FE students.

I note that through the country a significant number of FE/School students are joining in protests - they are the people most imminently affected by the proposed trebling of fees. Current uni students are unaffected by the changes. They are, in a sense, protesting altruistically - for the benefit of future students rather than themselves.

Whooa there. I never got that, when did that happen?

Came in about 5 years ago. Were you doing A levels then? Or perhaps your parents were too wealthy?

No no no. Was quite some time ago. And they certainly weren't.

I'd honestly never heard of it. So we bribe students to stay on at school these days?

[Lofthouse Lower]

Pretty much. They spend the majority of it on drugs and booze.

[William the White]

Thing is, if you worked full time then you could probably squeeze a three year degree into 12 months - just do it that way = cuts down on the cost of tuition and accommodation and therefore will leave the graduates with lower debts. It'd be a year of hard graft but then it'd weed out those just wanting to go for a three year piss up.

Couldn't be done in one year but certainly could be done in two but would require a major rethink on the nature of universities (a rethink some are in favour of).

Effectively it would mean taking away the research requirement of a number of universities and redesignate the majority as 'teaching' universities, leaving a small, elite group as research-only or research-priority institutions concentrating on postgraduate study. It would introduce a fourth tier into education, in effect.

[Lofthouse Lower]

Sounds great!

[thebish]

Thing is, if you worked full time then you could probably squeeze a three year degree into 12 months - just do it that way = cuts down on the cost of tuition and accommodation and therefore will leave the graduates with lower debts. It'd be a year of hard graft but then it'd weed out those just wanting to go for a three year piss up.

Couldn't be done in one year but certainly could be done in two but would require a major rethink on the nature of universities (a rethink some are in favour of).

Effectively it would mean taking away the research requirement of a number of universities and redesignate the majority as 'teaching' universities, leaving a small, elite group as research-only or research-priority institutions concentrating on postgraduate study. It would introduce a fourth tier into education, in effect.

and render that research sector even more prone to "ivory tower" jibes....

anyway - under their immigration cap - the gov seems intent on the massacre of the UK EFL industry - wich is reckoned to be worth £3billion to the UK economy - about as much as the UK publishing industry. I can't see this having a positive effect on Higher Education budgets...

[William the White]

So we bribe students to stay on at school these days?

One way of putting it. The hope was to persuade children of low-income families to stay on for further education. My daughter didn't get it - our joint income too high. It came with other initiatives aimed at getting more working class students into higher ed. My feeling is that the effect was, unfortunately, marginal. I may be wrong - hope I am.

[General Mannerheim]

The ones in Bristol all looked about 12.

"NO IFS, NO BUTS - NO EDUCATION CUTS..."

gayers

[William the White]

The ones in Bristol all looked about 12.

"NO IFS, NO BUTS - NO EDUCATION CUTS..."

gayers

Why?

[General Mannerheim]

The ones in Bristol all looked about 12.

"NO IFS, NO BUTS - NO EDUCATION CUTS..."

gayers

Why?

probably just born that way?

[Hoboh]

Water hoses, great for the unwashed!!!

[Lofthouse Lower]

1513: Nick Clegg told BBC 2's Jeremy Vine Show that he had not seen pictures of students hanging an effigy of the deputy PM from a set of mocked-up gallows, but added that he was "developing a thick skin"

Truly altruistic motives eh Billy?

[Verbal]

Lib Dems are going to get an absolute pasting at the next election for the way they've basically stuck two fingers up at their voters.

[Bruce Rioja]

Lib Dems are going to get an absolute pasting at the next election for the way they've basically stuck two fingers up at their voters.

I think you'll find that they got a pasting at the last election, too.

[William the White]

Lib Dems are going to get an absolute pasting at the next election for the way they've basically stuck two fingers up at their voters.

I so hope they do - never will a pasting have been so richly deserved... Send em to the darkest of oblivion... With only hoboh for company...

[thebish]

Lib Dems are going to get an absolute pasting at the next election for the way they've basically stuck two fingers up at their voters.

I so hope they do - never will a pasting have been so richly deserved... Send em to the darkest of oblivion... With only hoboh for company...

indeed...

I suspect that there will one day be a split and the Clegg-end will be subsumed into the Tories...

interesting article here about the process by which Clegg is swapping out his Liberal heritage for alien Tory concepts and cliaming they are the same thing - whilst arguing against a non-existant aunt-sally...

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom ... campaign=0

[Bruce Rioja]

William, can I ask you, as an industry professional, for your view on the shear numbers of students that now go through Uni? We now have 40% of students in higher education going onto Uni whereas the economic powerhouse that is Germany's figure is only 19%.

[TANGODANCER]

Was in for Bury for about four hours today and saw nothing of real note. A few bunches of weird-looking creatures shuffling about dressed like extras from a bad Western but that was it. Not the sort anybody would be head-hunting to take their companies forward unless looks really do deceive. Great unwashed is no bad description. No student allowance for soap or razor-blades then.

[Lofthouse Lower]

Was in for Bury for about four hours today and saw nothing of real note. A few bunches of weird-looking creatures shuffling about dressed like extras from a bad Western but that was it. Not the sort anybody would be head-hunting to take their companies forward unless looks really do deceive. Great unwashed is no bad description. No student allowance for soap or razor-blades then.

That's cos they were all in Manchester....

[TANGODANCER]

Was in for Bury for about four hours today and saw nothing of real note. A few bunches of weird-looking creatures shuffling about dressed like extras from a bad Western but that was it. Not the sort anybody would be head-hunting to take their companies forward unless looks really do deceive. Great unwashed is no bad description. No student allowance for soap or razor-blades then.

That's cos they were all in Manchester....

Ah well, The Manchester evening News headline and video from the posted link must have got it all wrong then.