Students fear debt will come with education

Wednesday 5th March 2008, 2:29PM GMT.

Students look at their options at yesterday’s Higher Education Fair. (Picture by Daniel Guerin, 0544957)

SIXTH-form students fear that going to university may cripple them financially.

Students visiting a higher education fair at the Grammar School yesterday expressed their concerns at the introduction of student loans next year. For many, the excitement of branching out into the world of higher education had been soured by the prospect of large debts after graduation.

Nic de Garis, a 17-year-old sixth form student, said that he planned to be a teacher and had no choice about going to university to study. ‘Teaching is a vocation and to do it you have to study at university. I am worried about this potential debt,’ he said.

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1
Maureen O Halloran

March 5, 2008 at 4:37 pm

I have two daughters – we used to live in Guernsey and both went to Uni after being educated in Guernsey. Its a fact of life that all students now have a debt afterwards- its part of belonging to the real world. One is now a teacher and studied for 7 years in the end- if your doing it for the money then don’t do it!!

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2
Rosie Fairclough

March 5, 2008 at 4:49 pm

Students that are educated in Guernsey have their university fee paid by the States of Guernsey even theough they no longer live on the island. Maureen O Halloran, students aren’t doing it for the money, they want to broaden their horizons without having huge amounts of debtafterwards.

Seven years of study to become a teacher, doesn’t it only take four? Maybe if your daughter had had to pay for it she may have got herself there sooner.

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3
Wil

March 6, 2008 at 9:49 am

I agree with Maureen.

Studying is an investment of time and money into your own future. If getting a casual/part-time job to pay for your investment does not appeal to you then there is an abundance of trainee opportunities in the private sector. You would be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the world with the number of trainee opportunities for young persons than Guernsey. Guernsey really is a wonderful island.

Rosie, dont be so quick to make judgements on Maureens daughter. Im sure that if you looked into it you will find that it is easy to clock up 7 years study with postgraduate studies, double majors etc or even working part-fulltime whilst studying.

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4
Simon Hainsworth

March 9, 2008 at 12:05 pm

I think its discusting that the student loans system is turning is to somthing where the company involved will be making proffit from with interest rates therefore crippling the person financially for many years to come. As it is guernsey student are regarded as international students and as a result have to pay more to get on the on entering the course! i feel that it should be the same as the uk and have 0% interest on the loan and not payed back until the student is working and earning over 15k a year! By doing this you are preventing people from acheiving there ambitions as you will not get many jobs ie teacher, docter and architect with out degrees!

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