University fees - a students perspective

Hello! For those of you who don't know me I am Laura and I have currently just completed my first year of university in the UK and I am reading Sociology.

So, in the UK it currently costs about £9250 (beginning in September 2017) per year in tuition fees to attend the majority of universities regardless of what course you are taking. If the average course is 3 years long that's a total of £27,750 of debt which most students have hanging over themselves by the age of 21.

In order for us students to pay these high fees which exclude any rent and living costs, we have to rely on the government to basically pay for all our tuition until we are earning enough to pay them back.

Okay introduction and basic explanation complete, in this post I am going to attempt to explain my discomfort with these incredibly high fees...

Firstly, my biggest issue is that as a university student (who can obviously only speak from personal experience), the money which we are paying seems to barely cover our courses, forget about having a good university experience.
I have had  lecturers turning up late and unprepared, maintenance problems in many of the buildings, a lack of computers and space to study and a number of technical issues in regards to the university intranet system, particularly on days where there is large amounts of traffic to the website -> which you would expect for a university with approximately 24,000 students (!).

All these kind of issues you would assume would be solved using the £9000 minimum that they are receiving per student per year.
Of course I can't comment on where the money is spent, as lecturers need a wage, overhead costs must be paid etc etc...

However by setting the fees so incredibly high, students are then expecting to receive a £9000+ service. When all these issues arise I just wonder where the money is going and how universities coped when fees were as little as £1000 a year?
When students are faced with almost £30,000 worth of debt by the time they are 21, we expect to get our moneys worth because it is such a commitment and even career prospects for graduates are not the greatest anymore.
I'm sure not all universities are like this and lots of people have probably had wonderful experiences, but regardless in my opinion I think the fees are just far too high.
I know my small opinion is not going to make any grand difference but I'd love to know how other people feel about this.

Considering that fees have risen again in 2017 there is no point even hoping for a decrease anytime soon, especially not as the government themselves and universities can capitalise through the struggles of students.
If we want more doctors and nurses, more teachers, more scientists etc we must stop making it harder for people to achieve these important roles in society which contribute to everybodys wellbeing. 

Anyway, on a less depressing note, thank you very much for reading. Please let me know what you think about the whole situation in the comments! Thank you again, adios for now x

Scary University decisions

For those of you who don't already know I currently attend Sixth form and will soon have to begin applying to University..but this really isn't as easy as it seems, at least in my head it isn't.
Everybody seems to say a different thing about University depending on their perspective.

Sixth form says 'go go go' - because of statistics and their reputation, they don't actually seem to care too much about the individual apparently...
Graduates either do exactly what they want and get the job they wanted or they end up doing a job completely unrelated to their degree which could potentially be seen as a waste of £30,000..
My parents personally try to stay objective and just want me to be happy I think but there is always that pressure to do well of course because I want to make my parents proud which is pretty normal I think.
Friends say no, its a waste of time, you'll have to make all new friends if you go to University and move away and lets not forget about the dept.
Other people just say that you should go to University if you know exactly what job you want to have etc but who really truly knows EXACTLY what job they can get which will satisfy them for their whole entire lives, of course there are some exceptions but I'm definitely not one of them.

So at the moment, deciding on whether I should even attend University is very very blurry. Personally, I'm a very undecided, easily influenced person who can change their life goals in a split second making the choice even harder.

Then there's the part of choosing a course and a place to go to and where to live and ahhhh so much to think about. It just all seems crazy and scary because making the wrong decision here could really negatively impact what happens in the future from my perspective.

Some people would say that an apprenticeship or a different alternative to university is a better option but then you hear the statistics such as ' Graduates Earn £200,000 more than those without a degree'. ( http://www.graduates.co.uk/the-graduate-premium/) Yeah, I'm just a little bit stuck and confused right now I guess :(

So please if you have an opinion or any suggestions on how I can make the right decision for me, I would love to hear about it!! Or maybe you're going through the same problems as me, let me know and we can discuss!

At the end of the day, I find security in thinking that whatever happens, will happen for a reason. 
For example If I completely fail my a-levels, then maybe I was never meant to go to uni but something else will crop up.
(This will also help me cope on results day haha..)

Thank you for reading! Please check out my other posts if you enjoyed this one and please feel free to comment or send me a message.

The dependency culture of technology

Okay so this post is a bit different to my other stuff. It's also the second time that I've attempted at posting this as the stupid blogger app deleted the whole post before actually posting it. Fucking brilliant.

Anyway.. So as a society I think we're becoming more and more dependent on technology to live. We are permanently attached to our mobile phones, listening to our iPods or scrolling through facebook on a computer. 

For example;

'75% of Americans admit to taking their mobile phone to the toilet'

I'm sorry whaaaat? 

Some people argue that they like having their phones with them at all times to feel safe. Yes I completely understand that and there are many benefits to having a phone. GPs, entertainment, safety, capturing memories etc... 

But, who's going to magically appear in your bathroom and attack you whilst you're on the loo?!?! 

This would suggest that maybe it isn't just for safety as to why we crave our phones. 

Nowadays we like having constant attention, constant entertainment, constant conversations. 

This then leads me to think about the future (and the title of this post). As a society we greatly depend on technology. Of course there are major benefits to having these things in our lives and we are very lucky to live in a world such as this. 

As time goes on, we're becoming more and more dependent. This also links to why the obesity rate is so high nowadays, we don't do things for ourselves. We don't have to, so why bother?

Need to get somewhere? Take the car.

Need to wash the dishes? Use a dishwasher.

Need to buy groceries? Do some online shopping.

So does this mean that future generations are going to be completely reliant on these technologies just to live? 

Can you imagine the day when people don't know how to read a clock because they don't need to know. All they have to do is press a button on their smartphone. 

Personally this worries me. 

Say this trend continues, how can our children learn to survive when we don't really live ourselves? 

Children are like sponges. They'll soak information up, ask questions, want to know more. They have endless amounts of creativity. 

But if we just shove them in front of an iPad with a game of Angry Birds, how can they make memories, gain experiences and learn from their mistake? All the things that have to happen for you to live your life. 

I'd like to say 'oh well, it's not my problem'. But actually it is. My children, your children, the future generations who will rule the world have to be considered.

I have no idea what can be done about these problems, but we can't just think about ourselves anymore.

Hope you've had a nice week, it's been lovely weather here in England for a change!;) thank you for reading this. 

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