Oxford and Cambridge to join £9,000 club on fees

Students whose family income is below £25,000 would pay £6,000 and receive a maintenance bursary of up to £1,625.

Senior managers at Oxford and Cambridge universities are intent on charging £9,000 a year in tuition fees, the maximum allowed, it has emerged.

A consultation paper shows Cambridge wants to almost triple fees to £9,000 as soon as it can in autumn next year. The university will charge the maximum of £3,375 for this autumn.

Students whose family income is below £25,000 would pay £6,000 and receive a maintenance bursary of up to £1,625, under plans from Cambridge's working group on fees, published internally for consultation. Means testing will taper this £3,000 reduction to zero when family income exceeds £42,000.

Oxford's pro-vice-chancellor, Tony Monaco, has said fees of less than £8,000 would lose the university money because of national cuts to teaching and other grants. He told a Congregation, a formal meeting of senior members of the university, that Oxford subsidised undergraduates by £80m.

"That is already straining research and infrastructure ... Were we to charge £9,000, the additional income would be £14m a year." This would be used to improve outreach activities and waive fees for the poorest students.

The university calculates that to waivefees for...

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Michael Gove: A-levels 'failing to prepare students for university'

British students face missing out on university places because A-levels fail to prepare them for degree courses, Michael Gove warns today.

The Education Secretary says even the brightest students often lack the levels of knowledge boasted by undergraduates from abroad – putting them at a disadvantage in the race for the most sought-after institutions.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he pledges to allow universities to help script A-level questions and exam syllabuses to make sure they act as a better preparation for higher education.

His comments come after it emerged that one-in-five universities are being forced to set their own entrance...

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How to cut tuition fees - Charlie Brooker

We should teach only the useful stuff: scavenging, strangling and how to operate a water cannon.

You can't put a price on a good education. Except, actually, you can – and it turns out that price is just over £9,000 a year.

Unsurprisingly many students are furious at the hike in tuition fees; but apart from shouting about it or trying to smash the Treasury to bits with sticks, what practical steps can we take to make education more affordable?

Nine thousand pounds a year sounds like a lot – but actually, it's shitloads. Yet it turns out that if you divide shitloads by 52, it comes out at around £173 a week, which sounds more achievable. Especially if your course only lasts seven days. So let's only provide week-long courses.

Obviously, to compress a three-year course into one week, the field of study will have to be streamlined a bit. Whittled down. Reduced to a series of bullet points. But in many cases, that's an advantage.

Take history. There's already far too much of it. In fact, mankind is generating a "past mountain", which grows 24 hours in size every single day. No one can be expected to keep all of that in...

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Lib Dem transport minister may quit over tuition fees

Liberal Democrat transport minister Norman Baker has hinted he could resign from the government in order to vote against plans for tuition fee rises.

The party's MPs signed a pre-election pledge to oppose any increase, but policy has changed since the formation of a coalition with the Conservatives.

Mr Baker told the BBC it was the "most difficult issue" he had faced.

He added that quitting his post to vote against the rises was one "option", but said he had not yet made up his mind.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and his colleagues have faced criticism for backing coalition plans to raise university tuition fees to as much as £9,000 a year, despite pledging to fight any increase before the election.

According to the agreement with the Conservatives, Lib Dem MPs are expected to back the change in...

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How you need some help with your Law Essays?

With my Law Degree I have found many free resource sites which are great at directing me with structuring my law essays.

Probably one of my favourites is, Law Essays UK they seem to update their site with new example essays each week which are very useful and give me guidance before I start writing my own.

If you follow them on Twitter you will receive their essay updates as soon as they are added - @lawessaysuk

Hope you find their resources as useful as I have.

Ciao

Max

Beswick Contract Law Essay

Whilst researching for my essay on the Beswick v Beswick contract law case which Peter Beswick sold his business to his nephew John Beswick in return for a promise to pay £6 a week to Peter Beswick for the rest of his life and thereafter £5 a week to Peter Beswick's widow for the rest of her life. Upon Peter's death John stopped making the payments to Peter's widow which resulted in her taking action against him this was thrown out as the contract was only between Peter & John she wasn't a party in the contract.

This information was found on Law Essays UK and you can read the essay here.

University graduates taking jobs in call centres

Almost a third of call centre workers have university degrees, as students struggle to find decent jobs during the credit crunch.

Call centre bosses reported an increase in the number of applications from former students amid a drop in the number of well-paid graduate positions.

The news follows the publication of figures showing that thousands of students are finding work in bars, supermarkets and building sites after failing to secure posts in graduate professions.

According to a latest study, one-in-three call centre staff now has a university degree compared with 25 per cent in 2009.

Almost half of call centre bosses said they had seen a increase in graduate applications.

The findings – in a study by Hays Contact Centres – follows a drop in the number of skilled staff taken on by leading firms in recent years.

Geoff Sims, managing director of Hays Contact Centres, said: “Call centres are becoming more demanding of their staff so it isn't surprising that the profession is attracting more people with degrees, particularly when we are still faced with a challenging economy and high unemployment levels.”

The study – based on a survey of almost 300 call centre staff – also found that university graduates increasingly saw call centre work as a career.

What is your opinion? Are call centres a good career?