1) The document discusses factors that influence students' decisions about what to do after college, including university fees of £9,000 per year resulting in £27,000 of debt over a three year degree. 2) Students must apply to university a year in advance, requiring them to decide whether to attend university, what to study, and where to attend long before starting. 3) With the upcoming UK general election, young voters will consider parties' university policies, as the Liberal Democrats previously promised to abolish fees but then increased them to £9,000 per year.

1. Emma Upton
Around this time of year students are ready to leave college or sixth form and move onto
University, I wanted to find out what influences students choices when they’re deciding
what to do after college. A very common story in the news is university fees, how they have
risen over the past years and if they are a fair amount to pay. £9,000 per year is the usual
amount a student will have to pay over the length of 3 years, meaning they will finish uni
with a minimum of £27,000 of debt, not including the maintenance loan most students
receive. Another factor students have to think about is if they want to move away from
home and into student halls, or to stay at home and study close to home.
Students start applying for UCAS and university a year before they will be attending,
meaning they have the huge decision of to go to university or not, what they want to study
if they do want to go and what uni to go to a long time before they will even be going.
With the general election coming up on the 7th May, a main focus for a lot of young voters
will be the party’s policies on topics surrounding Universities. Liberal Democrats caused a lot
of controversy at the last general election when they promised they would get rid of
University fees then promptly upped them to a maximum of £9000 a year.
I spoke to several young people who are about to leave college and go onto university what
they thought about before deciding whether or not to go to university and whether
University fees were included in their decision or not.
When you were deciding to go to university, what were the main things you took into
consideration?
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Did you take uni fees and how much debt you will be in when you’ve finished into
consideration when you were making this decision?
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Finally, with the general election coming up, does parties policies on university fees effect
your decision when coming to vote?
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