student finance 2014

[Guest55]

I think my DS will be charged about £1000 when he's on his placement year to cover support by tutors; I will check.

Salaries seen to be around £15 000 but need to cover living expenses which may not be as cheap as uni.

[Marylou]

Some mandatory vet placements are paid, others not. Luck of the draw, I suspect! DD was very fortunate to get a 2-week paid lambing placement last year, with board and lodging in addition. I think she was one of the lucky ones, though. I'm not sure what happens with the more extended practical placements in the final two years of the course.

[southbucks3]

So for a medicine or vet course is it really 3 or 4 years borrowing 9k a year, plus placements in the industry, which you may/may not be able to earn some cash?

Many construction/engineering degrees are followed by 2 years of 4 day weeks, with day release for professional exam courses, which are essential if you wish to be a member of a particular organisation. So the first two years of a job will be on lower pay and day release, no chance of reaching much over 21k until you are a paid member of an institute, and you won't even be insurable, or held in account of your decisions.
You can also achieve sone modules for membership by a specific masters, but these can be taken part time, again with day release and lots of evening studies, over two years, the cost varies between courses, but they do not charge double to take it over two years.

I may be wrong but I have a feeling accountants spend ages on 4 day weeks too...i remember my friend getting very cheesed off with doing his accountancy exams while the rest of us were out pkaying?

[hermanmunster]

Medicine is 5 years at least, no paid placements, but may be able to get means tested bursary in 5th and subsequent years.

Then of course they are then paid but supernumary and in foundation and then middle grade and higher training for a number of years. They will be earning enough from the start to pay off some of the loan. FY1 pay starts on £22,636.

[Tinkers]

I don't know any engineers who do day release after graduation. The company (especially big ones) may have their own accredited training scheme, but it's all on the job training.

The IChemE don't have an exam to get chartered status. Just a training report and interview. Can't speak for others.

[southbucks3]

Can speak personally for acoustic engineers....day release master's, most of them at my last job did this for institute of acoustics, I did the diploma in acoustics as I just added the module to my degree and in those days...paid my way in with industrial savvy and the boss writing a nice letter.

Dh had to spend quite a while doing modules for institute of building control, that is now part of rics, but you need professional exams for the insurance if you want to work for an approved company.

I guess whatever route you take to being a professional or specialist you will get a financial kick on the way there in one form or another.

[Marylou]

So for a medicine or vet course is it really 3 or 4 years borrowing 9k a year, plus placements in the industry, which you may/may not be able to earn some cash?

Further to Hermann's post, vet courses are also a minimum of 5 years. DD is thinking of intercalating (i.e. doing the third year of a related degree so she gets a first degree in the middle before going on to qualify as a vet) which would take it to 6. So that's 6 x 9K plus living costs. The additional year may or may not increase her earning potential later, but I don't think she's concerned about that right now - just how to pay the rent for the extra year...

As for compulsory placements, in the early stages they are short-term and usually carried out during vacations apart from lambing, which has to be done quite early in the year. In the last two years I believe the students are attached to a practice which oversees their continued practical training, but I'm not sure of the details as she hasn't got that far yet! Again, I think payment or not is at the discretion of the placement provider, but many of them (not all) appreciate having young and enthusiastic people through the door, perhaps not experienced but up-to-date with the latest developments and willing to work hard, so both sides benefit. As regards grants/loans, remember these only cover term-time and are not supposed to stretch to vacations, so unless board and lodging is included, these placements are very much at the expense of the student and their family. Despite being an essential part of the course (i.e. you can't qualify unless you've done the placements) these costs are not taken into account when loans etc. are calculated.

[SteveDH]

Regarding engineering placements, it depends.
All the uni's my DD has applied, she would earn money on the placements.
however
In some uni's its part of a proper sandwich course and you get marked on your placement and some more letters after your name, in these cases you still have to pay some sort of fee.
Other uni's encourage you to do a year in industry after your second year, but its not marked and you get no extra letters (presumably still looks good in your cv though), and in these cases you pay no course fee for that year.. generally.

Interestingly some uni's would like you to do a year before you start uni so that you can tell if its what you really want, and others think this is silly as at that stage you don't know enough to be useful, and that you should wait until you've done a couple of years of your uni and then do a placement.

[SteveDH]

I don't know any engineers who do day release after graduation. The company (especially big ones) may have their own accredited training scheme, but it's all on the job training.

The IChemE don't have an exam to get chartered status. Just a training report and interview. Can't speak for others.

I'm not sure about chem, but the reason most uni's prefer you to do a Meng instead of a Beng is that a Meng covers all the academic requirements towards being chartered.

[Tinkers]

Same for Chem Eng. having a masters is a requirement for getting chartered these days. There are ways around it, (design projects or courses once graduated) tbh it's much easier just to do a MEng.