Thoughts on the University Gravy Train

For god's sake, read the whole entry before passing judgment on what a disgusting, money-grabbing , baby-drowning Tory I am. I suppose you could consider this a Rant.

I’m going to nail this topic after many blog posts about it, as it’s coming back into the fore and I can sense I will  just be completely incensed by what I see as supreme selfishness and short-sightedness on a sect of British society.

Who on earth could I be talking about? University students, of course.

Now, those evil, wicked Tories have made it so that tuition fees are allowed to rise to almost £9,000 per term, and this works out at the average student, as of 2012 onwards, leaving their three years of taxpayer-funded binge drinking with about £30,000 to £40,000 in debt.

How outrageous that it should be expected that students eventually pick up the tab. How dare the state not allow this haemorrhaging of taxpayer’s cash almost directly into the pub landlord’s tills.

I have two points: why do I see uni students as a stereotypical bunch of lazy, sh*tfaced drunkards? Well, from my Facebook news feed, primarily.Fresher’s week seems to actively promote the consumption of heinous quantities of alcohol. Why is it so terribly skewed in favour of drinking? This can’t be healthy! Then there are those moronic Carnage events that say they “do not encourage excessive drinking”, but you’d have to be moronic to buy that. What else is a pub crawl supposed to be about?  Then, of course, there’s the deluge of hundreds of samey, repetitive, blurry pictures of the latest drunken night out on the town. Great. There’s also a seeming disdain for doing actual work, from people’s status updates; they either complain that they actually have to do something that doesn’t involve alcohol at university, whether that be lectures in the mornings (mornings?! What are… mornings?!), essays or other tasks. This then culminates on other status updates about how screwed people are because they left seven essays to the last possible moment, and only have three hours to complete them.

Do not expect sympathy from me. You signed up for university, yes, partly for the lifestyle. I’m not saying that shouldn’t be a part of the experience. Just read how I wrote that – it should be a part of the experience, not the whole deal. But you also have a responsibility to earn your place there, to ensure that you are not wasting mine or everyone’s time, because, for as long as you are cashing in student loans, you have hardworking people like myself and others who contribute to society to make it all possible. Yet I receive, it seems, very little in the way of thanks. I find this very, very selfish from those who deem it somehow a complete outrage to have to actually attend the lectures or write the essays.

Of course, I feel it’s gravely important to point out that there is a select few gems who actually value the opportunity they have at university and completely capitalise on it. I only wish there were more of you. You, and I need to name none of them, they know who they are, are wonderful people and should be commended. I really don’t mean to offend anyone who goes to university, and is on a student loan, but actually buckles down and makes the most of their experience. This is the sort of higher learning I have no problems with supporting temporarily through student loans. Many of these hardworking students work during holidays and even term-time to support themselves. This is fantastic, and long may this continue.

My second point is this: Why is it outrageous that it should be expected that students pay back, over time, the debt they accrue? It’s hardly like, even after the new Coalition proposals to let tuition fees rise to £9,000 a year, is actually asking too much of students. Forgive me for being narrow-minded, but isn’t one of the key points of even going to university the whole notion of dramatically increasing one’s earning power? So paying back the loans, gradually, over years, isn’t really that much. to ask, is it? Those vile Tories, evil child-killing necrophiliacs that they are, are even raising the salary threshold to £21,000 a year from £15,000. That’s a 33% rise, but obviously not enough for these greedy student unions who seem to want to have everything handed to them for virtually nothing, and not be expected to pay back the favour the British taxpayer, of which I am one, do them.

I chose not to go to university for my own reasons. But I would appreciate a little appreciation from those who did choose to, as I do think I have a genuine reason to expect a little thanks. Don’t squander the chance you have there, and don’t complain about the gravy train that university seemingly is being halted in the face of economic reality. Tuition fees do need to rise to keep universities financially viable.

Maybe students who think this is an absolute outrage need to look again at where their priorities lie.