Cornish Chris's Casual Conversations

There is a situation in the UK where the opportunities for students are unequally distributed across the 4 nations. This is “issue “is a combination of separate problems and inequalities that are not regularly acknowledged or proactively campaigned against. So what are these problems well they are numerous, however in short they are tuition fees: English students pay the full £9000 via loan regardless of where in the UK the university is. Northern Irish students who go university in Northern Ireland pay up to £3,575, up to £9000 anywhere else in the UK, via loan. Welsh students pay £3,810 via loan and the rest is covered by the welsh government, regardless of University location in the UK.  Scottish students who go to university in Scotland, don’t have to pay for their fees, anywhere else in the UK they pay up to £9000 via loan. Interest on the loans are different: for English and Welsh students, interest is charged at a rate of RPI + 3.9% while studying until the A...

A couple days ago I was made aware that The UK government has made plans to increase student fees in the UK. This post may be considered late but I didn’t want to go on a long irritated rant, so I took my time to catch my breath and collect my thoughts. The tuition fees for UK undergraduate students will have increased to £9,250 for 2017 onwards if plans go ahead, and this blog is written as though all the plans have (they most likey will pass as the conservatives have a majority). At first, this £250 increase seems like not much, but when you understand what that extra £250 could amount to with interest, plus that it is only one of a group of changes, it is . The £250 increase isn’t the main issue, which is that the fees will increase with inflation, and with inflation set to be high over the next few years, in 2019 and 2020 expect to see tuition fees over £10,000, which is obscene in my opinion. These changes could apply to current students, that is up to individual univers...

This is my letter My letter to Theresa May and Philip Hammond on student loan changes and issues facing students asking why they exist please share if you agreed with it and comment it you think I should actually send it. Dear The Rt Hon Theresa May MP and The Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP: The past few months have been chaotic for British politics and I know with recent events you are most likely too busy to address this letter or issues herein anytime soon, especially since parliament has broken for summer. I am writing to you to in regards to the proposed changes to the student loans agreement and several issues that face thousands of students and graduates. I was at first not aware of the changes proposed by the former chancellor, however like thousands of students, educators and MPs it took me a while to understand what the effects would be and once I knew I was honestly appalled and terrified. The concept of changing such an agreement after the fact is im...

Recently there was a petition that was going around to prevent the government changing the terms of the student loan agreement and that petition has resulted in a debate in parliament. In this post, I hope to shed some light on the proposed changes why they are happening and what it will mean for students. Last year soon after the election the then Chancellor of the exchequer George Osbourne announced his budget and buried deep within that budget were plans to retrospectively change the terms of the student loan payments effectively meaning Students both past, present and future will pay more interest on their loan payments after the £21,000 threshold. Why? well, in short, is that the government is not getting enough money back from the Student loans system, in fact, It was dangerously close to being unfeasible i.e. the government giving out more than was repaid. Now the reasons the government was not receiving as much as predicted are numerous, one is that there are massive...

When I started this Blog (a few weeks ago) I told myself that I would stay away from ideological and political issues as they are topics that two people rarely have the same opinion on. However, over the past weeks I have developed so many thoughts and opinions and have to express them. What is happening in the world? everything that has happened over the last few weeks is almost for one to process. Horrific terrorist attacks worldwide, sadly there are too many to name, the murder of Jo Cox, the Shootings in the US and the attempted coup in Turkey. I am left to wonder will this ever change, see I always thought I had a rough plan for my life, go university get my BSc and MPhil and get a job in Forensic toxicology or Forensic Chemistry research probably meet someone, and eventually start a family but I find this plan challenged especially the start a family part. How could I justify bringing a child into this world after everything that has happened over the last few week...

Over the past week, I have pondered the question what to do in the holidays? Now several ideas and several necessities come to mind For example making sure accommodation is sorted and insurance is sorted for next years accommodation also making sure you are signed up to the correct modules alongside checking your grades are all absolute must do's for the holidays. But those things still leave a large amount of time, now the most obvious thing to do would be to get a job if you haven't got one already. even though it seems like a no brainer get a job earn some money for next year great. But what if you can't get a job, that may seem unlikely nearly everyone can get a job, well that depends on your situation. For example, some areas have really low employment opportunities especially for students looking for part-time or temporary work. From my experience in my area, most jobs I have found are permanent positions many require months to years of experience in very specific...