He giveth and taketh away

Amusingly opposite messages about funding for 4th year today. BMA Charities sent m a letter to say that they are awarding me a grant to cover my tuition fees for 2008-09. This is the same as last year and is very nice of them and makes the finances that bit easier.

It was followed by a phone call from North Tyneside (my LEA) to say that Uni have not sent them a form to tell North Tyneside that I repeated the year, and without which North Tyneside will not allow me to have a Student Loan in Yr4 or Yr5. I emailed the Registry about it, reminding them that I asked them to send the form in September '07. Not heard anything back yet, which is annoying and must make a mental note to check on Monday.

Roll up, roll up, Bargains to be had

One of the issues with a December birthday is the fact that any gifts come in one month. This means that you have spent them all by November. Due to the English LEA Student Loans system paying out on a termly basis for me (pre 2006 entrant) as opposed to the new monthly system which applies in Scotland and to new entrants in England, I also got my Student Loan at the end of September.

Thus November is always a bad month for me financially, and I;m having fun at the moment trying to find things to sell on Ebay / Amazon.

Examples include a textbook which I owned but then was sent for review purposes by a publisher (So as not to break the rules, i am selling my copy, not the one that the publisher sent me.) and some DVD's. Sadly I tend to break the CD cases so none of them for sale...actually i can't think of anyone who'd want to buy my CD collection... Anyway, this is how I'm spending my Saturday evening!

Investment and return

In September last year, I gave the BMA £24 annual subscriptions. yesterday they sent me a letter offering me £1500 (a 6250% return).

To be fair I gave them the same amount last year and got nothing back, and I might not get anything next year! It is to pay my tuition fees etc this coming year and came from the BMA charities wing, which has a trust to provide support for Medical students.

So I guess I owe thanks to two groups of people - my two referees; and all the BMA members who contribute to the charities fund each year which allowed them to grant me this money.

My LEA have calculated me as not having to pay fees next year because (yet again) they have forgotten to factor in that this is my second degree and thus I have to pay full UK Fees.

Uni Fees

This week, the disparity between Scottish students and other UK students increased

As a student who was from england before I started Higher education, I am still treated as being english even 7 years later. This means I pay £1200 fees to my University each year. It also means that I get a means assessed loan, which is assessed by my LEA, though the loan is from the students loan Company. Also I am not eligible to claim back my travel costs from either my LEA or the university at which I study (approx £40 last year).

Were I to have been born north of the border and followed the same courses, I would have had to pay no fees for my first degree, but £2000 upon graduation. I would have been entitled to the same loan, assessed in the same way, but this time by SAAS a Government agency, with the loan again coming from the student Loan Company. I would have to pay fees for my second degree, but would be entitled to claim travel expenses from home to Uni (i.e. for a normal day on campus), plus all trips to hospitals, and 2 return trips to see my parents each term. And this week the Scottish executive removed the £2k graduate endowment, effective from this year!

If I were from another EU country, discriminating against me in this way would be illegal, but apparently it is ok to discriminate within an EU country between 'regions'! It is enough to drive me to a protest sit in somewhere. My MSP is not interested as they represent only Scottish issues. My MP says it is a devolved matter. The NUS, CHESS and BMA don't seem too worried about it either.

I know that my total debts even after 7 years will be easy to pay off once i graduate and am working 70-odd hours a week for the NHS and that in due course I will earn well above the Scottish average of £17k, but... at the moment it all seems ratehr unfair and penalising.

In an interesting turn of events, my LEA back home say I don't have too pay Fees in 2007-8, and have even increased my loan, so maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel after all.