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Welcome
to www.wewontpayourloansback.co.uk
We have set up this campaign in sheer desperation. Despite enormous public opposition the authorities have not reacted in a way to resolve the dire situation facing students and graduates today. Instead the authorities acted in such a way to make it worse. Some of those who voted for the abolition of grants and the introduction of tuition fees and then top up fees went to university. Those politicians got grants and didn't’t have to pay any fees. It is the ultimate hypocrisy. We are asking people to do as many of the following as possible to resolve the situation. 1.
Read one of the team's original student debt articles 1. The original student debt article Read the original student debt article on www.undercovermedicine.com - UK and Europe section. Although this is an article about medical students many of the issues in this article affect all students. Ironically in March 2004 an article came out in BBC news called Med students in serious debt (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/wales/3529197.stm) came out showing that some newly qualified doctors at a Welsh medical school are leaving with debts of more than £45,000. As the author predicted lower income students are being wiped out from medicine (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3825329.stm). It
shows that the person who wrote the original article was right
all along - however nobody listened. 2. Read the latest article in the article section. Read the 2nd student debt article below. You will see that the situation is getting worse. This article was written in 2003 and since then as predicted the tuition fees have risen. This article explains how they will rise. (Link to bottom). The BBC wrote an article called More students declare bankruptcy. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/education/3453263.stm Three times more students wrote off student loans by declaring themselves bankrupt in 2003 than in 2002. According to the Student Loans Company, 899 filed for bankruptcy last year, compared with 276 in 2002, 249 in 2001, 97 in 1998 and eight in 1992. Our writer was proved to be right all along. Worse still in Reader’s Digest (February 2005) there was an article called Is University really worth the money? www.readersdigest.co.uk/magazine/CHAY-695LJN/University.pdf Again it turns out this person was right all along. 3. Consider not going to University We would strongly counsel you to consider not going to university. The reason being that if you see the 2nd article you will see that as more people go to university the value of a degree will lessen. As such you may end up with a huge debt for no benefit. Regarding courses such as medicine, dentistry or engineering we would counsel you to strongly think against going on such courses as they are far more expensive. If the numbers applying to these courses fall the universities themselves will lobby the government about this. 4. Email the Department for Education and Science and your MP about this If you not going to go university for this reason we ask that you email or write to the Department for Education and Science telling them this. Email here info@dfes.gsi.gov.uk Although we are not party political we have been advised that you should copy your email to your local MP. Go to www.writetothem.com and tell your MP about your decision not to go to University. 5. Go to a Scottish or Welsh University if you do decide to go to University depending on where you come from If you do go to University then we would ask that you strongly consider applying to a Scottish University where the tuition fee is lower. If you get accepted make it very clear that this is the reason you applied. If you are a Scottish student we would advise that you make all your applications to Scottish Universities if possible. For English students we would advise that you apply to at least one Scottish University. UCAS will make a record of these applications and the authorities will have to take note. We applaud the decision of the Welsh assembly not to charge top up fees for Welsh students (www.icwales.co.uk). We would advise all Welsh students to make all their applications to Welsh universities if possible. As the English Universities lose applications they will take note. 6. Do not apply to any university from the Russell group of Universities if you do apply to University if you can avoid it We would ask that all applicants do not apply to any of the Russell group of Universities that is actively lobbying for higher tuition fees. As people do not go there they will lose money. As they lose money they will learn their lesson. Basically you are using your power as a consumer. We are asking people to particularly target the Universities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield. The Chairman of the Russell Group is Professor Michael Sterling, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham. The Group's Executive Director is Mr Michael Carr, Registrar, The University of Liverpool. The complete list of Universities we are asking people not to go to are: »University
of Birmingham (www.bham.ac.uk) If possible please email webteam@liv.ac.uk and tell them of this. 7. If you are already a student once you have graduated then consider refusing to pay back your student loans We would not advocate non payment of your tuition fees as your universities could potentially exclude you for this. Once you have your degree then we ask that you consider a refusal to repay your loans. If you are reading for a professional degree such as medicine, pharmacy, dentistry etc do not refuse to repay your loans until you are fully registered with your regulatory body. Your universities cannot do anything at this point. They cannot take your qualifications of you after you have graduated. We are asking people to email us if they are willing to do this. If enough people are then we will start a concerted campaign of non-payment. However we must point out that any campaign of protest must be peaceful and if we start any protest marches then they must be non-violent. 8. A gesture of thanks to Dr Varma However as a gesture of thanks to Dr Varma for allowing us to use his articles for our campaign, at his request, we have agreed to ask people not to apply for any course at the Universities of Sheffield and Liverpool. Varma’s dispute at Sheffield was so serious that Richard Allan MP once wrote “This does raise some important issues about the conduct of university examinations and courses.” This is after seeing the evidence- including a letter from one of Dr Varma’s supervisors who wrote “it appears to me that some people do not want him to carry on his medical studies.” The University of Sheffield did it’s utmost to stop Dr Varma qualifying as a doctor- mainly Dr Peters from the psychiatry department and Professor Weetman- dean of faculty- who manipulated evidence against Dr Varma. Once Dr Varma had qualified by taking his exams externally they tried to have his qualifications taken off him- in particular Mr. Page the Undergraduate Dean and Professor Weetman- dean of faculty. If you read www.undercovermedicine.com and see True Lies you will see how the University of Liverpool postgraduate dean Dr David Graham bullied Dr Varma. The UCM team received hundreds of emails from doctors from abroad who decided after seeing this article that they were not going to come to the UK particularly after the way Dr Graham treated Dr Varma. There is much information in True Lies that the authorities do not want the public to know. 9.Letters from the authorities If
the authorities send us any threatening or abusive letters we
will put them up on the site. Nobody is forcing anyone who reads this web site to take up any of the actions we have put on it. Anyone who does so takes these actions under their own free will. Therefore we will not accept responsibility for any negative effect or repercussions any of the above actions may have on you
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