ISSUE 240
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TUESDAY 23rd FEBRUARY 201 O. e www.concrete-online.co.uk
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UEA'S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
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FREE
STUDENTS WOULD PAY MORE FOR DEGREE A recent student survey has shown over 50% of students are willing to pay up to £5,000 for a degree. Concrete survey mirrors national survey's result with 8% saying they were willing to pay up to £7,000. Andrea Stromskag A recent survey conducted by the Opinionpanel research group shows that over half of students are willing to pay up to £5,000 in tuition fees at university. After 37,000 students from different universities around the UK took part in the national survey, Concrete conducted a similar survey on students from UEA. When being asked if hey would consider paying more in fees for their degrees if it meant that they would receive a higher salary once they had graduated, the students were split in their decision. 56 percent of UEA students answered that they would be willing to pay more, while 44 percent answered no. One in four UEA students
also did not see themselves· paying more than £3000 for their degree, while the majority seemed to be willing to pay from £4000-£5000. A surprising eight percent said they were willing to pay over £7000 for their education. Rounding up the UEA survey, students were asked to answer if paying fees up to £5000 would have stopped them from going to university completely. While 70 percent answered that this would not prevent them, a startling 30 percent said that this would have stopped them from attending university completely. The results from the UEA survey are not drastically different from the ones collected in the national survey. However, Opinionpanel recorded and considered
gender, race, class and current subject studied. Economic background was a small factor for the answers given. For example, fees at £6,000 would deter 44% from fee paying schools and 54% from state schools. The survey found that the most important driver in encouraging students to pay more for fees was the current subject studied and at which university, even if other factors, such as economic background, differed. lt found women were significantly more likely to reject higher tuition fees than men. Students from some ethnic background were more likely to reject higher fees than other groups, regardless of economic background. The president of National Union of Students, Wes Streeting said, in response to the survey, that "this report is valuable evidence of how
genuinely variable fees would cause serious negative effects. lt is clear that students from disadvantaged backgrounds, women and those from some ethnic minorities would be priced out of elite universities, pushed away from the subjects they really want to do, or forced to make the..calculation - ti0 that higher edu 1 isn't for them". Adding to Streeting's reply, Professor Vignoles, Director of the Centre for Economics of Education (CEE), responded to the survey saying that universities must be "mindful of where they position themselves in the market". She continued saying that the findings suggested that the optimum model would be one in which universities charge variable fees depending on the
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ZIMBABWEAN CRICKETER HENRY OLONGA COACHES UEA CRICKET TEAM
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UEA SCORES HIGHLY AMONGST ITS CRUMBLING COMPETITORS Chris King
In a survey recently compiled by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the state of buildings at UEA has compared favourably with many leading universities. Both residential and nonresidential buildings ranked highly for their condition and
functional suitability, with just 3% of UEA buildings scoring a 'D' grade for the former, and none being ranked below a 'C' for the latter. Residential buildings at UEA were particularly highly-rated, with 78% achieving a 'B' rating for condition and 68% achieving the same grade for functional suitability, whilst 32% were afforded the
highest rating in this category. On a national basis, however, a significant proportion of university buildings have been deemed "inoperable", "at serious risk of major failure or breakdown" or "unfit for purpose" by university surveyors. Major casualties of the report include such high-ranking institutions
such as the London School of Economics (LSE), which saw 41% of its lecture theatres and classrooms judged unsuitable for their current use just two years ago, and Imperial College London, which had 12% of its non-residential buildings termed inoperable at around the same time.
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