tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153845628469776909.post5458559371878039196..comments2024-03-24T09:13:28.758+00:00Comments on The Plashing Vole: Who'd be a nurse?The Plashing Volehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13021407602157515927noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153845628469776909.post-92159593505197524882011-09-03T21:28:31.517+01:002011-09-03T21:28:31.517+01:00Not wishing to sound like I support the idea of fu...Not wishing to sound like I support the idea of funding higher education by loans, I don't, but that calculator clearly shows what Martin Lewis has been banging on about ever since the LibDems failed miserably to get across any kind of message about the implications of the changes other than the headline fees. After 30 years the debt is wiped, so the less you earn, the less you pay back, since most will not repay the whole debt within that time. Unless your salary is pretty high, it makes no difference how much you have to borrow because of this. The repayments also depend only on your salary and not on your debt. In effect you get taxed extra for 30 years regardless of the cost of your course(s). Nurses get taxed less than lawyers in the normal course of things, and the same will be true of their loan repayments. It's really, really important that this message gets out because my 6th Form students are making bad decisions based on the mistaken belief that there is a big difference between £9000 and £7000 fees (actually irrelevant to most) and even have an unarticulated anxiety that they, or their parents, will be reaching into their pockets to pay fees, as they first step through the door of academia, even though they kind of know that this isn't actually the case. Crap though fees/loans are, the changes did actually offer a potentially better deal to exactly the sort of students who are likely to be put off by the notion of paying £9000/year, and for the students that go on to be nurses and teachers. By the way, national average salary £24000, my teaching salary (middle management) £40000 after about eight years of teaching. I seem to be doing alright out of my four years at uni! Also, nurses don't pay any tuition fees, although primary teachers and social workers do.matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06064245011105794473noreply@blogger.com