Author Archives: Craig Brown

Getting involved in the Association of Liberal Democrat Engineers and Scientists

The Association of Liberal Democrat Engineers and Scientists (ALDES) organises a fringe event at each conference. Our fringe event this Spring is entitled ‘The UK Space Industry: An Unsung Success Story’ – a topic very close to my heart, as an engineer designing space missions out of an office in Hertfordshire. Yes, ladies and gents, the UK ‘does space’. And what a lot of people don’t realise is, we do it very, very well.

The UK space industry has bucked the national trend and has seen impressive growth during the recession. Areas such as satellite broadcast, communications, equipment and support services …

Posted in Conference | Tagged | 2 Comments

Opinion: The truth about the graduate contribution

There is a real danger that many prospective students will be put off from going to university due to the confusion, half-truths and lies, often left unchallenged, relating to the new system of university funding and graduate contributions.

A bright light which breaks through the fog can be found over at MoneySavingExpert.com, where Martin Lewis pares things back to the bare facts. His Student Loans Guide 2012 makes the following key points:

  • Existing students stay on the old system of loans
  • Students don’t pay anything up front
  • Graduates will pay back £540 per year less than they do under the current system – graduates will have more money in their pocket each month
  • Graduates who earn less than £21,000 don’t pay back anything
  • Graduates will owe more and be in debt longer but this debt will not affect credit ratings
  • People shouldn’t think of the new system as a loan but as a graduate tax
  • The rules may be different for students in Scotland and Wales
  • Most people will never pay back all of this debt as the debt is wiped out after 30 years

A graduate tax: the very thing that the NUS has been calling for. It is a crying shame that the NUS has decided to be political over the new changes rather than do the right thing by the people it professes to represent.

I would be extremely disappointed if there is a single person put off going to university due to the spin put on the changes by the NUS. Let’s hope that as many prospective students as possible find their way to MoneySavingExpert.com where they can actually get some honest expert advice on what to expect when they take up their courses in 2012.

Editor’s note: You can also watch a video of Martin Lewis explaining student funding from 2012 on YouTube:

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 19 Comments

Recent Comments

  • User AvatarAlex Sabine 17th May - 3:11am
    If the reports are to be believed, IDS has already dismissed this apparently back-of-the-envelope costing by Steve Hilton. That is hardly surprising since he has...
  • User AvatarElliot Bidgood 17th May - 1:42am
    Thanks for the information about the govt consultation, Carol, hadn't heard about that. Just filled it out.
  • User Avataralistair 17th May - 12:37am
    Where does Cameron get his advisors from, Coulson, Hilton? It's like some parallel valueless universe.
  • User AvatarRichard Dean 16th May - 11:49pm
    I wonder if we might all appreciate a bit of light entertainment at this stage of the debate? Here are the lyrics of “Visions of...
  • User AvatarNicola Prigg 16th May - 11:21pm
    Was his first speech to conference as leader recorded and put online anywhere?