We are at the dawn of a major change in higher education undergraduate funding that changes from the beginning of the 2012-13 academic year. This change not only places the costs of higher education on the individual student, but means that universities such as UCA (University for the Creative Arts) will now receive limited funding directly from central government, via the Higher Education Funding Council. From this September home or European Union students enrolling for their undergraduate degree will be charged fees up to a maiximumof ?9000 per annum. In order to pay university fees, students can take out a government loan, repayable after graduation once they are earning a minimum of ?21,000 per year. It could be argued that many graduates intending to set up their own craft businesses may initially struggle to get to the ?21k threshold, although I do not believe this is a strong argument with which to persuade prospective students (or their parents) to enrol onto a ceramic degree course and now pay the higher fees.
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