Anti fees protest

Lockstep · 05-02-2009 01:14AM #1

Was anyone here at the anti fees protest in Dublin?

galwayguy22 · 05-02-2009 01:28AM

I'm currently in 4th year so I couldn't give a **** if they bring back fees to be honest.

Protesting is a futile exercise anyway.

Personally I think fees are a good idea. Far to much people in college just for the sake of it. Maybe higher fee's would make them think twice.

You know the type of people, they fart around all year, end up repeating most of their exams in Autumn(which are far easier), and end up coming out of college with a higher degree yet have very little knowledge in their field.

Higher fees =
less wasters and more people who are there to get a good qualification, and will sacrifice to get it =
Higher quality of graduates =
Higher quality work force =
Innovation and yada yada...you get the idea.

alan4cult · 05-02-2009 01:30AM

^^^ I sort of agree with you, strangely

05-02-2009 01:31AM

galwayguy22 wrote: »

I'm currently in 4th year so I couldn't give a **** if they bring back fees to be honest.

Protesting is a futile exercise anyway.

Personally I think fees are a good idea. Far to much people in college just for the sake of it. Maybe higher fee's would make them think twice.

You know the type of people, they fart around all year, end up repeating most of their exams in Autumn(which are far easier), and end up coming out of college with a higher degree yet have very little knowledge in their field.

Higher fees =
less wasters and more people who are there to get a good qualification, and will sacrifice to get it =
Higher quality of graduates =
Higher quality work force =
Innovation and yada yada...you get the idea.

You sound like a science head!

Run_to_da_hills · 05-02-2009 01:32AM

If the weather keeps up the way it is we might have an anti freeze protest.

anonymous_joe · 05-02-2009 01:34AM

I was there. Was finished my lectures and wandered along.

sneakerfreak · 05-02-2009 01:35AM

no i was too busy robbing some trinity students at needle point

Lockstep · 05-02-2009 01:38AM

galwayguy22 wrote: »

I'm currently in 4th year so I couldn't give a **** if they bring back fees to be honest.

Right, well I have younger siblings so it's important to me anyway.

galwayguy22 wrote: »

Protesting is a futile exercise anyway.

Yeah, never worked for the civil rights protesters in the USA.

galwayguy22 wrote: »

Personally I think fees are a good idea. Far to much people in college just for the sake of it. Maybe higher fee's would make them think twice.

You know the type of people, they fart around all year, end up repeating most of their exams in Autumn(which are far easier), and end up coming out of college with a higher degree yet have very little knowledge in their field.

Higher fees =
less wasters and more people who are there to get a good qualification, and will sacrifice to get it =
Higher quality of graduates =
Higher quality work force =
Innovation and yada yada...you get the idea.

I agree college has too many wasters, I'd support a way to get them out but fees are not it; as it is, you get a grant based around your parents income. A friend of mine are estranged from his folks but gets no grant because they are wealthy.
If fees came in, he wouldn't be able to get into college.

Should he be punished because a bunch of wasters think college is a way to have fun?

Also, fees will have no effect on wasters being in college, given that it is likely their parents will be paying for them to go anyway.
THe students I know who are on the grant are hard workers as they know this is their chance to go to college. It's usually the rich kids who are the wasters as they have no need to get a job to get through college etc.

At any rate, this thread is meant to be about the fees protest in DUblin, not the general fees/no fees debate which has already been done to death on boards.

The_Minister · 05-02-2009 01:39AM

anonymous_joe wrote: »

I was there. Was finished my lectures and wandered along.

Wouldn't have thought that was your cup of tea.

Aldebaran · 05-02-2009 01:46AM

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Was anyone here at the anti fees protest in Dublin?

Not me, had lectures.:pac:

galwayguy22 · 05-02-2009 01:48AM

Oh and I forgot to say,

Anybody would be able to pay for food and rent plus the proposed fee's with a solid summer job and a weekend job even without help from parents or grant.

Problem is most students piss away enormous amounts of money on alcohol.

If you want something worthwhile in this life you should have to put genuine effort in.

Nightwish · 05-02-2009 01:48AM

Just to say, thats not entirely true. A B.Eng would cost in the region of €8000 pa. Couple that with cost of living in Dublin, no weekend job would pay for that. My parents couldnt afford to financially support me through college so it was a hefty loan + part-time work. If fees were there, I couldnt have gone to college.

I was at a protest march in 2002. Same thing. Lots of silly banners, political satire and shouting. It was fairly pointless, but the lecturers told us to go along. They said the protesting was part of being a student.

Firetrap · 05-02-2009 01:51AM

I think it's inevitable that fees will come back in some form or another. I'd prefer the idea of student loans repayable when students start working rather than heaping their parents with tuition fees straight off.

I'm old enough, by the way, to have gone to university before fees were abolished. Even though my parents were earning very average wages, we were apparently too rich for the means test. And so, in October and again in January, my mum had to pay my tuition fees. It wasn't easy by any means (I don't think when you're 17 you really understand the sacrifices your parents are making so that you can go to college) but they managed fine and they're still speaking to me.

Patricide · 05-02-2009 01:53AM

galwayguy22 wrote: »

Oh and I forgot to say,

Anybody would be able to pay for food and rent plus the proposed fee's with a solid summer job and a weekend job even without help from parents or grant.

Problem is most students piss away enormous amounts of money on alcohol.

If you want something worthwhile in this life you should have to put genuine effort in.

Yeah maybe with a decent summer job and having no money to spend on yourself in the slightest to socialise or do anything during the summer months.

I think the current fees scheme is fair. I didnt like my course so i left last year, came back and paid for my semester outta my own cash. In the current economic climate with it being fairly hard for anyone never mind unqualified students to get a job everyone that wanted to go to college would need to work there arse off. There just arent enough jobs to go around.

ditchhurler · 05-02-2009 02:18AM

I think that one side benefit to fees would be to improve attendance at lectures - the attendance levels are shocking; if parents were paying 8K or more in fees I think that they might take a keener interest in how their offspring were making use of their funds.

Of course if our students were more mature, they'd have no problem in taking on their own loans rather than abdicating their responsibilities to their parents, just as they do in terms of the applications process - ask any admissions office about who makes the calls - the mammies of Ireland of course, as junior is too shy/disinterested to make the calls about their course queries.

Traditional · 05-02-2009 02:21AM

Big bad biffo has his boot on yer neck ! youd better break open your piggy bank for next year !!

Run_to_da_hills · 05-02-2009 02:31AM

Traditional wrote: »

Big bad biffo has his boot on yer neck ! youd better break open your piggy bank for next year !!

You mean the IMF piggybank. :eek:

Tom65 · 05-02-2009 02:41AM

ditchhurler wrote: »

I think that one side benefit to fees would be to improve attendance at lectures - the attendance levels are shocking; if parents were paying 8K or more in fees I think that they might take a keener interest in how their offspring were making use of their funds.

Of course if our students were more mature, they'd have no problem in taking on their own loans rather than abdicating their responsibilities to their parents, just as they do in terms of the applications process - ask any admissions office about who makes the calls - the mammies of Ireland of course, as junior is too shy/disinterested to make the calls about their course queries.

Parents may take an interest, but students will just lie about it. I was looking at Masters courses in America, and one said it was $1,000 per hour of course. Knowing that each class was costing me (not my parents) $1000, I would go every single time. But when some waster is having his parents pay without it making a dent in their or his finances, it doesn't matter.

I'm not against fees exactly, but consider how this government has handled grants, I don't trust them at all to bring in fees. As many people have said, the grants systems has fúcked them over, and fees would do the exact same. I can accept Universities are woefully underfunded. I can accept paying a loan based on firstly, my income after I graduate, and secondly the grades I get. However, what I can't accept is that a government which spends just 4% of it's GDP on education (lower than most OECD countries) expects to have a 'knowledge economy' to bolsters it's finances it's a few years.

If education is an investment for both me and the state (me so I get a decent job, the state to boost it's economy), I can accept that. But if I'm going to pay my part and the state is scrimping out, paying less than it should, that I can't accept.

Bottle_of_Smoke · 05-02-2009 03:15AM

Did all the protesters show up in designer clothes/make up?

Fees are perfectly fair so long as you don't have to pay until you're in employment after finishing the degree

Patricide · 05-02-2009 03:30AM

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

Did all the protesters show up in designer clothes/make up?

Fees are perfectly fair so long as you don't have to pay until you're in employment after finishing the degree

Good luck telling the banks to give out thousands of students bank loans all at once in the current economic climate....

K-9 · 05-02-2009 03:40AM

If the rich should pay more tax, they should also pay more fees.

tallaght01 · 05-02-2009 03:45AM

It's a tough one, in the current climate.

I've always advocated paying back fees after graduation.

But at the moment I wonder where we'd get the money to implement these changes right now. I mean we'd have to continue paying for the running of universities, but we wouldn't be getting any money paid back for the next few years.

Bottle_of_Smoke · 05-02-2009 03:46AM

Patricide wrote: »

Good luck telling the banks to give out thousands of students bank loans all at once in the current economic climate....

It would be a government loan like in the UK

Gu3rr1lla · 05-02-2009 03:50AM

I was there. Too many socialists. The speakers on the stage were muppets and people just cheered along as if they were their saviour.

ANyway, i really hope they dont bring in fees. College is the only hope i have for a good future. Our family has never been "rich" we only make enough to get our daily bread. So my parents wouldnt be able to pay me through college, if fees are brought in i'll be another sucker at the dole line.

brosps · 05-02-2009 03:50AM

Student fees arn't going to raise the quality of the workforce you daft chicken fillet. What it will do is create a bigger divide between the classes and bring more money to those that already have it n the long run, which could well end up mending the economys equilibrium by reducing the ridiculous amount of middle class families in dublin.

more chicken fillets for me so i dont really care

Patricide · 05-02-2009 04:17AM

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

It would be a government loan like in the UK

Our government is going to get this money where exactly? There not exactly in the best of financial condition at the moment, what with all the salary caps in the public sector and so on.

What the government needs to do right now is to get jobs into the country, not get rid of college fees. If they get more jobs they get more people employed who pay taxes, get people off benifit and sponging from the country. How theyd go about doing this I have no idea, possibly by giving ireland tax free opertunities for buisnesses, or at least tax breaks. Dunno if that would even work though as the eastern block countrys wage costs are feck all and they have similar breaks.

gamblitis · 05-02-2009 05:50AM

galwayguy22 wrote: »

Oh and I forgot to say,

Anybody would be able to pay for food and rent plus the proposed fee's with a solid summer job and a weekend job even without help from parents or grant.

Problem is most students piss away enormous amounts of money on alcohol.

If you want something worthwhile in this life you should have to put genuine effort in.

Man you have one serious chip on your shoulder. Theres professionals you can see about that level of bitterness.

Anyway, never made it to the protest today sadly.Was busy working on a college assignment.

Lockstep · 05-02-2009 09:49AM

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

Fees are perfectly fair so long as you don't have to pay until you're in employment after finishing the degree

Which runs the risk of sidelining employment.

If your going to be paying fees back, then you'll be looking for the most lucrative job possible. Not one which you really want or where you feel a massive vocation for, but one with cash so you can repay the fees.

Rb · 05-02-2009 10:05AM

Let's all just hope that the bunch of incompetent, greedy, lazy dirt bags that we've had running this country are out of power before the fees are introduced, and that a capable party are elected and start actually finding solutions to the enormous problems in this country that FF and their retarded ministers have caused.

They talk of putting 1.5 BILLION into Anglo Irish to cover sub-ordinated debt, private debt the bank has accumulated while they were giving out millions upon millions to dirty ****ing builders who now can't shift the properties to pay them back yet they can't find 10 million for the cervical jab and money to cover student fees, so that we can continue to have a well educated work force for when our economy turns around?

Our filthy, corrupted Government...and yet people still believe "they're all the same" or "sure they'd do no better". It's no wonder this country is such a ****ing mess.

astrofool · 05-02-2009 10:12AM

A high % of people with a university education is the only thing stopping us being a third world country at this stage. If we bring in fees, we might as well start shipping people out of the country as soon as they hit 18, as no multinationals will ever be interested in coming to Ireland any more.

Wagon · 05-02-2009 11:00AM

galwayguy22 wrote: »

Anybody would be able to pay for food and rent plus the proposed fee's with a solid summer job and a weekend job even without help from parents or grant.

Sorry mate, have to disagree with that. There's no way in hell that any student could afford rent and living expenses and fees by working a summer job. When your a student, you get paid minimum wage. So unless you don't sleep all summer and have 2 jobs from start to finish that won't happen. Also, it's far too optimistic to just assume that every student in Ireland will be gaurenteed a job for the summer, especially since it's very hard to get regular work as things are economically.

Anti fees protest

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