Reform UK claims it would renegotiate Brexit deal to stop resident foreign students accessing UK student loan system

Oreo

Feeback? I simply don’t agree with you.Shop work is what a lot of graduates from former Poly’s end up doing, no need for a degree or A levels.
From the Blair years onwards too many teenagers have been badly advised and let down by being encouraged into University when they simply weren’t up to it.It was one of Blair’s ideas that 50% of school leavers should go onto Uni’s.
A ridiculous percentage.

In this Oreo I completely agree! I thought the old system of having specific colleges teaching skills for work and then Universities for those wanting or able to have more academic teaching, worked extremely well, as did the old “technical colleges”. I just find it amazing frankly that no govts appear to forward plan for professionals, surely they must have 5 & 10 year plans for ensuring we have enough nurses/doctors/teachers/dentists/plumbers/electricians and other required skill sets? It’s seems not!

Btw my DS attended Oxford Brooks (a former poly) and studied a combined degree of Law & Psychology and luckily he’s never had to work in a shop! (Not that’s there’s anything at all wrong with working in a shop, we’d be in a bad way if there were no shops!)

I do think you’re a little harsh about what you consider “wasted” degrees, lots of very academic people do degrees, not knowing what jobs they finally want to do, and I don’t think education, at whatever level is wasted, and it’s no longer really much funded by the state, so why not!

3 out 5, of our adult children chose not to carry on into higher education, all of them have work, ironically the two with good degrees earn less than two of their siblings who went straight into work at 18, one into banking and one into the Civil Service, our youngest has his own band and is living his best life at 23, he’s very creative and not at all academic. Horses for courses. (He will never make “good money”), but I think he’ll make enough to get by!

Don't understand the bit about 'foreign students from other countries'.
Don't all foreign people come from other countries?

kjmpde

My understanding is that foreign students actually help fund universities and the restriction on the numbers has meant that
educational establishments are struggling

Most importantly for those who are tempted by voting for Reform - if GB is taken out of the ECHR and Reform follows through with its policy of cancelling the Equalities Act that the most vulnerable in society will suffer. You have been warned

The former Polytechnics that taught- wait for it - Technical Skills, moved up market and became second rate universities, teaching whatever the student fancied at whatever level because it meant bums on seats.
It was a big increase in status and obviously funding, the government of the day got that badly wrong, because jobs did not follow the qualifications. Instead to fill skill shortages overseas workers were recruited, because the courses chosen were not wanted by employers

Sueinkent

Anything to prevent them having to tax the rich.

The rich are taxed.

I wouldn’t be tempted to vote for Reform, but in the event of them power sharing with the Conservatives ( the only way they could get the numbers to form a government) and this policy was enacted then I wouldn’t grumble about it.

Anything to prevent them having to tax the rich.

kjmpde

My understanding is that foreign students actually help fund universities and the restriction on the numbers has meant that
educational establishments are struggling

Most importantly for those who are tempted by voting for Reform - if GB is taken out of the ECHR and Reform follows through with its policy of cancelling the Equalities Act that the most vulnerable in society will suffer. You have been warned

Yes you’re correct but only foreign students from * other* countries coming to University here in the UK.

Feeback? I simply don’t agree with you.Shop work is what a lot of graduates from former Poly’s end up doing, no need for a degree or A levels.
From the Blair years onwards too many teenagers have been badly advised and let down by being encouraged into University when they simply weren’t up to it.It was one of Blair’s ideas that 50% of school leavers should go onto Uni’s.
A ridiculous percentage.

My understanding is that foreign students actually help fund universities and the restriction on the numbers has meant that
educational establishments are struggling

Most importantly for those who are tempted by voting for Reform - if GB is taken out of the ECHR and Reform follows through with its policy of cancelling the Equalities Act that the most vulnerable in society will suffer. You have been warned

Oreo

Cossy your over long and rude rant at me shows me how very little you seem to know.
As for my comment ‘good salaries’ there’s nothing incorrect or wrong in that, it’s what every graduate hopes for.
Of course I know that poly’s were turned into universities btw.
Far too many students now end up unemployed or doing shop work that’s not well paid or applying for over 300 jobs with no luck as a graduate speaking on Radio 4 told the presenter recently.

How about

Apologies if you found it rude, I’m well aware of how difficult some graduates find it to get work, but many graduates do still have to start fairly low level in company roles, but are likely to go in at a higher salary than a non-grad, notwithstanding that they still have to learn their job role and the business, neither of which will have been learned at University.

Grads have found it difficult to get into their first role for decades, at the salary they appear to feel they warrant.

Just to be clear, my “overlong and rude rant” simply addressed some of the points you raised.

Why your obsession with low paid shop work?

My DiL graduated from a great Uni, her degree was biology related, her Masters was also biology related. She had no issues finding work in her related degree area, research, however despite her relevant degree in a strong subject, research is often very badly paid. After a few years, whilst still working, she completed a coding course and now earns more than twice her previous salary!

It’s not all “lowly” jobs which are low paid.

But thank you for feedback 🙂

Fifty thousand pounds in debt. Not easy for the young just now, who wish to study.

The young people I know have done better going to a technical college at 16 and learning a skill. By 21 they are fully qualified and earning a full wage, of the 5 that went to university all are doing unskilled work to pay the rent.
One in particular is very disenchanted because her sister who didnt go to Uni is now earning £40k - at 21!

There are many who would be better leaving after GCSE’s at school and others after completing A levels.

twaddle

Or non-sense.

We can’t all agree twaddle

No idea where the how about appeared.

Cossy your over long and rude rant at me shows me how very little you seem to know.
As for my comment ‘good salaries’ there’s nothing incorrect or wrong in that, it’s what every graduate hopes for.
Of course I know that poly’s were turned into universities btw.
Far too many students now end up unemployed or doing shop work that’s not well paid or applying for over 300 jobs with no luck as a graduate speaking on Radio 4 told the presenter recently.

How about

Or non-sense.

BlessedArt

Imagine being so bigoted that one ignores what a loan is and also ignores the fact that educated immigrants are a plus. It checks all the boxes for bitter Reform types, doesn’t it?

No it doesn’t, it ticks all the boxes for some common sense.

The time for students loans not being paid and written off is now 40 years. Student loans are also cancelled if the borrower dies or is permanently unfit to work.

Former students are not able to repay their loans during periods or maternity or paternity breaks, periods of unemployment or any other reason for a period not working- but of course the interest accrues during these periods.

Students leaving university now frequently over £50,000 in debt making the threshold for repayment much higher and fiscal drag by not raising repayment thresholds keeps the students in debt for longer.

For the 2026/27 tax year the income thresholds before which student loans repayments kick in are:
Plan 1- £26,900 per annum
Plan 2- £29,385 pa
Plan 4 £33,794 pa
Plan 5 £25,000 pa except for post graduate loans and it is £21,000.

A newly qualified nurse or teacher, needed in society, would have to work full time to reach the income threshold. If the nurse or teacher, at any stage in their career, has children or parent caring responsibilities and decides to work part time- or for how ever many years, they will not meet the income threshold, not make student loan repayments during that time and rates of interest above inflation will accrue. After however many years, if said nurse or teacher returns to full time work she or he will start again to repay their student loan with added accrued debt until 40 years after loan began. Said nurse or teacher may be reaching or have already reached retirement age.

The fact that not all students loans are fully repaid over a 40 year period, or written off- will include a large cohort of people- deceased, disabled and/or unfit to work, those who worked part time to support their families and those who have reached or gone beyond retirement age. It cannot be said, without any supportive evidence, that the sole or even main culprits for unpaid or written off student loans are those who choose a degree "that gets them nowhere".

* Polytechnics have been given University Status.

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BlessedArt

Imagine being so bigoted that one ignores what a loan is and also ignores the fact that educated immigrants are a plus. It checks all the boxes for bitter Reform types, doesn’t it?

We have educated unemployed or under employed in the UK because the education system does not recognize what the UK needs.
So migrants have to be found to do the worker it doesn't get done.

Imagine being so bigoted that one ignores what a loan is and also ignores the fact that educated immigrants are a plus. It checks all the boxes for bitter Reform types, doesn’t it?

Wyllow3

When many of us were young you could walk into a job within a week.
It must be so hard now.

Yes because we were willing to do whatever work offered, now we think we are too good for that work. I did it, most of us did but now we bring in migrants to do it.

Migrants are willing to do the work that our own young people are not willing to cross the road for, I have no sympathy at all for those that say there is no work.

The 'real reason'? Has this been formally studied?
If so, there will be data.