Repayment holiday for Student Loans is now only 2 years, not 5

Still on the subject of the extra 10,000 places, which has certainly gathered a lot of comments, one issue seems to have been missed. Or perhaps drowned out in the worry and concerns that are said about both Clearing and also perceived lack of opportunties for new graduates. The fact that the repayment period has changed from 5 years to just 2 is a big change. This repayment holiday was seen as useful because it allowed students to focus on other financial issues (if they chose to), before having to begin repayments on their loans when they were earning enough. It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on students and their plans, but certainly some parents are aware of this issue. If Martin Lewis, of moneysavingexpert.com fame has concerns that the student loan scheme is being chipped away bit by bit then it must be something to consider. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/students-fiveyear-repayment-holiday-on-loans-is-abolished-1754393.html Of course the other point is that more students are now getting grants, either full or partial, than at any time since the loan scheme for Higher education started. There are also bursaries available from many universities which are worth checking out.

10,000 extra university places on offer

Currently the 10,000 extra Uni places are bring promoted as part of the governments response to the pressures that people believe we will experience when Clearing comes around. However the fact that the Unis will not be getting any teaching grant will have an interesting effect on who will actually be offering such places. On the one hand those universities who traditionally recruit students through clearing might well feel this could help them, whilst those who recruit fewer, if any, students via this route might feel less inclined. Obviously this has not escaped the notice of business people http://preview.tinyurl.com/FT10000Places. The real issue is that these places will only be for STEM courses, (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), so these are not the courses that are usually oversubscribed anyway. It will be interesting to see what effect this new initiative has as we go into Clearing this year.

Goodbye exams – Hello continuous e-assessment

As we get ready for the words to flow from all sides as the time for Clearing gets nearer I find the comments by Simon Lebus, chief executive of Cambridge Assessment, thought provoking to say the least. In brief he is saying that within the next 10 to 15 years we shall be saying goodbye to the old exam structure and moving toward a continuous assessment (ca) using e-technology for all exams. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jul/12/written-exams-computerised-testing As advisers I expect that we have all dealt with students who, despite producing good work, find sitting exams so stressful that it can seriously impact their grades. It will be interesting to see how this progresses as the classic “sit down and write for 3 hours” exam is often seen as a final quality proof of the work that a student has taken in and can use to answer the questions set. Thinking of some of the feeling towards ca we have seen so far it will not be a technical issue, but rather one of political perception.. It has been said that the current Government has concerns about ca and would like to look at introducing “controlled assessment”, which could be done in school and supervised like exams, while the Conservatives are reported as wishing to go return to the high stakes final exams that were traditional, as they feel the continuous assessment approach has lost confidence with people
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/a_level_gcse_results/article6220846.ece

Drop out students get help to finish their degree at home (Part 2)

Following on from my previous posting about this new initiative, it has now been confirmed that this is a pilot project run initially in the North East of the country. However the people I have spoken to at the Open University are hopeful that the West Country could be in the next round if they let this idea develop. Of course many students who do not finish their full time degree for all sorts of reasons, (Illness, personal issues, family pressure), can take their HE work they have already completed, gain credit for it from the Open University, and then keep on studying to gain a full degree. Something to consider when looking at HE options perhaps.