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Student at Middlesex Uni uses student loan to join ISIS
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Stuka



Joined: 27 Aug 2012
Posts: 237

PostPosted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 10:48 pm    Post subject: Student at Middlesex Uni uses student loan to join ISIS Reply with quote

A ‘street-smart’ teenager who conned his way into university and blew his student loan on a trip to join ISIS has been jailed for five years today.
Yahya Rashid, 19, blagged his way onto a course to study electronics at Middlesex University using a forged certificate for a BTech level 3 diploma and received £6,326.96 in student loans.

Rashid, of Willesden, north west London, used the cash meant to fund his studies to buy plane tickets to Turkey so he could help four friends travel to war-torn Syria with him on 26 February.

Despite having an IQ of just 65 - far below the average of between 85 and 115 - he was able to outfox a suspicious police officer at Gatwick Airport when he arrived ‘out of breath’ at the departure gate with his friends Khalid Abdul-Rahman and Ibrahim Amouri.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3323792/Teenager-used-university-grant-join-ISIS-friends-Syria-jailed-five-years.html

Shocking, but can you blame students when virtually any fee-paying person can get into a British university today? And what about the Student Loans Company? Do they really have any morals about who they lend to or are they just interested in the PROFIT in the form of interest repaid later? Whatever the case, this all makes a mockery out of British education today since it decided to open its doors to the free market. Things can only get worse . . .
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Hod



Joined: 28 Apr 2003
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 12:56 pm    Post subject: Re: Student at Middlesex Uni uses student loan to join ISIS Reply with quote

Just one correction (in bold).

Stuka wrote:
Middlesex Polytechnic


Stuka wrote:
Despite having an IQ of just 65


He seems qualified enough for a poly.
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grahamb



Joined: 30 Apr 2003
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 5:11 pm    Post subject: University Challenge Reply with quote

Just one correction, Hod: Middlesex Polytechnic gained university status in 1992.
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gregory999



Joined: 29 Jul 2015
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 5:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Laughing Laughing Laughing

It seems Hoddy is qualified enough for a pre-1992 Polytechnic! Laughing
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Hod



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 5:58 pm    Post subject: Re: University Challenge Reply with quote

grahamb wrote:
Just one correction, Hod: Middlesex Polytechnic gained university status in 1992.


Two decades on, the 1992 universities still have lower entry standards than pre-1992 universities.

But why stop at entry standards?

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings?o=Entry

There are many such guides, but they’re all similar. How many 1992 universities in the top ten? (None). How many in the top twenty? (None). Thirty? Forty? Not one. Coventry hits the big time at number 48.

As Stuka rightly says, it’s wrong that students have to pay to study. I find it even more wrong that studying at a top ten university costs the same as somewhere like Coventry. I have to ask why people pay for second best?
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Stuka



Joined: 27 Aug 2012
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:06 pm    Post subject: Re: University Challenge Reply with quote

Hod wrote:
. . . it’s wrong that students have to pay to study. I find it even more wrong that studying at a top ten university costs the same as somewhere like Coventry. I have to ask why people pay for second best?


Yes, and it's even more wrong that British students are paying for their education while EU students are getting 'grants', ie, the Student Loans Company is giving them loans but they are returning to their countries without paying. In effect, British students are subsidising EU students. How crazy is this?

European students who have taken out taxpayer-funded loans to study at English universities are a record £43 million in arrears.
The amount owed by the defaulting students has doubled in two years, figures from the Student Loans Company show.
One in eight of EU graduates from English universities who are now living abroad are failing to repay the loans, and experts predict this figure will soar after the Government’s decision to allow unlimited numbers to study in England from this September.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3141810/Students-EU-studying-Britain-fail-repay-43million-tax-payer-funded-loans-untraceable.html
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gregory999



Joined: 29 Jul 2015
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:45 pm    Post subject: Re: University Challenge Reply with quote

Hod wrote:
grahamb wrote:
Just one correction, Hod: Middlesex Polytechnic gained university status in 1992.


Two decades on, the 1992 universities still have lower entry standards than pre-1992 universities.

But why stop at entry standards?

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings?o=Entry

There are many such guides, but they’re all similar. How many 1992 universities in the top ten? (None). How many in the top twenty? (None). Thirty? Forty? Not one. Coventry hits the big time at number 48.

League tables don’t always tell you the full story, either. Certain university courses are well regarded by employers in specific career areas, even though the universities may not feature in the upper reaches of the tables. Falmouth University and Sunderland University are known to produce high achieving graduates in journalism and animation respectively, but there’s little sense of that reflected in the league tables.
Overall uni rankings may also conceal pockets of excellence, or mediocrity, at a course or department level.

http://university.which.co.uk/advice/choosing-a-course/what-do-university-league-tables-really-tell-you

The Russell Group, in no uncertain terms, as the academic equivalent of an "oligarchy".
How is that? It seems a controversial charge.

"An oligarchy is a power structure in which power rests with a small number or people. It is usually interpreted negatively as an abuse of power and control and the disenfranchising of the majority of players in a system... This seems to me to match well the position of the Russell Group in UK higher education."

The vice chancellor says that the Russell Group is a "self-promoting marketing group" - but it has come to be treated as an objective measure of quality.

He argues that many universities and individual departments outside the Russell Group are as good as those on the inside, but there is no way for them to join this "gentleman's club".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27399512
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Hod



Joined: 28 Apr 2003
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 11:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You've copied and pasted parts of two articles without comment. Any thoughts?
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Stuka



Joined: 27 Aug 2012
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 12:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

And the madness continues:

Shameless glamour model enrolled in uni just to get £14k student loan for plastic surgery

http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/02/shameless-glamour-model-enrolled-in-uni-just-to-get-14k-student-loan-for-plastic-surgery-5476547/

Can you really blame these people? Before it makes loans, the Student Loan Company should vet these people and reject them if they don't make the grade. Getting student loans today is as easy as . . . well . . . get a pay day loan from Wonga.
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Hod



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 1:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I know the Student Loan Company is government owned and independent of the universities, but this recent snapshot of inappropriately-acquired loans seems to only involve new universities, formerly known as polytechnics.

This does help demonstrate the lower entry standards at these post-1992 “unis”. No one’s going to study hard to get two A-Level As and a B, which my (real) university course still insists on, if they’re only joining a course for a boob job.

So what to do? Institutions should be penalised when a student takes out a loan and fails to attend. They’re unlikely to raise academic entry standards, sadly, but they might make half an effort to ask about a student’s motivation.
.
Over to you, grahamb. It's obvious which type of "uni" you went to.
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grahamb



Joined: 30 Apr 2003
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 7:18 pm    Post subject: University Challenge (2) Reply with quote

Quote:
Over to you, grahamb. It's obvious which type of "uni" you went to.


Imperial College London, old boy. Only sixth in the 2015 CUG rankings, I'm afraid. Dare I ask the name of Hod's alma mater?
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Hod



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 9:02 pm    Post subject: Déjà vu Reply with quote

Well done, although you were there a long time ago.

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings

In the 2016 CUG, Imperial comes fourth whilst my sorry Southampton languishes in fourteenth. To save some face, though, Southampton is ranked at fifth for my subject.

As I said yesterday, Coventry is the king of polys at number 48 despite the fact courses there will cost the same as at Imperial or Southampton.
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 26, 2015 8:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dumbing-down is for real. 50% of school-leavers go on to University ! And then there are no jobs ! Insane. "The Diploma Disease" was the name of a book a few years back. It is now an epidemic.
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Hod



Joined: 28 Apr 2003
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 26, 2015 10:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

All the more reason to go to a higher-ranking university.

If a meal at KFC cost the same as at a Michelin restaurant, a reasonable person would opt for the latter. An undergraduate course at somewhere like Coventry*, though, costs the same as a top university.

Ignoring minority courses such as Journalism, most students at Coventry will be studying mainstream subjects available at any uni. There are exceptions such as people who need to study locally, but most others will know Coventry is ranked way lower but costs the same as grahamb's Imperial.

The real reason is, of course, grades. Coventry's students wanted to go somewhere better but couldn't.

I don't get it. You can retake A-Levels or take foundation courses to get into a better uni. Are these people too lazy and happy to settle for second best? Or are they lacking academically? Either way, why would you employ them?

* Not picking on Coventry. It's just the best new uni according to the 2016 CUG.
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Stuka



Joined: 27 Aug 2012
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 5:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

scot47 wrote:
Dumbing-down is for real. 50% of school-leavers go on to University ! And then there are no jobs ! Insane. "The Diploma Disease" was the name of a book a few years back. It is now an epidemic.


And the Student Loans Company(SLC) is encouraging this because it doesn't care about grades and standards, it only cares about getting students into debt so that they(the SLC) can get a return on their investment. More and more the UK HE scene is starting to resemble that of the States where for-profit companies rule the roost. Yes, it is insane. Already markets are flooded with degree holders and there are no jobs in certain sectors. A quick google search found this perceptive article from Australia:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/universities-need-to-take-responsibility-for--students-wellbeing--success-and-job-prospects-20150629-gi0d4a.html

With more students getting loans, but fewer jobs guaranteed upon graduating, isn't this a recipe for a complete and utter disaster?
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