University Financial Aid - Points to Ponder

When looking for university financial aid opportunities, you should be aware of several things. Finding aid is challenging and you need perseverance for your research and applications. When you begin, there may be a lot of different options that you are not aware of so make sure to not leave any stone unturned. What can be intimidating about University aid offers are all the necessary requirements that need to be fulfilled in order to qualify for the aid.

Finding suitable student loans is only one part of the puzzle; you also need to be thinking about financial aid disbursement. Once you have finished your studies, you need to pay off your debts. The method and terms of repayment often vary depending on the conditions and type of financial aid you receive. Remember that aid policies can vary depending on fields of study, so be particular about the details. Just because your friend received excellent repayment terms does not mean you would also be entitled to the same generous condition. Prior to finalizing any applications, make sure you will be able to find the means to pay back the loan. Some repayment plans have grace periods, where the repayments start, for example, 6 months after you finish school. Theoretically, this gives you the time to find employment before you need to pay back the loan. However, it is easy to create a repayment plan ahead of time and put some money aside as you receive your student loan.

In some cases, for example when the financial aid arrangement is through the University, policies allow students to pay off their debts by working in the institution. Depending on the courses you have completed, this could mean a position as a research assistant, a teaching aid or even an instructor. Make sure that you have a clear understanding of these kinds of potential terms and conditions prior to filing out any aid policy applications.

Financial aid is a great opportunity for people who are in need of assistance and support for their studies. But they involve repayment, so you need to make sure that the payment terms are feasible and always double-check the details. It is best to analyse the applications very carefully to avoid any potential problems regarding your finances. The consequences of not being thorough in the beginning can lead to stress later on and have a lasting effect on your credit history.

For more information about university financial aid and financial aid disbursement visit our website universitiesfinancialaid.com.

Original article

The Big Hike in University Fees Is Scary, Why Should UK Students Use the 'Daily News' For Guidance?

Increased Tuition Fees will bring 'mortgage-levels' of debt for our future graduates. This should encourage all Sixth Form Students to research their University courses with more vigour than ever before.

There are ways of organising student finance to minimise the effect of a lifetime of debt. Getting a job with graduate-levels of pay is the first step, especially with such high rates of unemployment around. Well, here is a big chunk of advice - Never believe what you read in the Papers, if you see a report about a desperate shortage in one skill area then check it out.

Recently, a serious shortage of Engineering graduates has been quite topical, with heavyweights of Industry and Politics crying out for a lot more students to become Engineers. After all the future growth of the country is at stake! So take a guess at the percentage of Engineers in graduate-level work, 6 months after leaving University - 90%, 95%? Well, according to the latest figures available it happens to be less than 50%!

So what. Why does it matter if our leaders spout yet another 'institutional truth', it happens all the time, so get over it. Well if you are a hard-working student at College, or Sixth Form, and you are considering what University degree to apply for, then it certainly DOES matter. As everyone knows, a good career boosts the quality of life. If a young student reads an article encouraging them to take up Engineering, then they may swallow the advice and do just that. Be very careful.

Let's just track the news articles involved. Firstly from some of the 'too few Engineers restricting economic growth' brigade:

UK Business Secretary of our Coalition Government, September 2010 "Business cannot grow due to a shortage of trained workers while our schools churn out young people regarded by employers as virtually unemployable. The pool of graduates is growing yet there is a chronic shortage of science graduates and especially advanced engineers."Chief Executive of Scottish Power, February 2011. "UK plans to develop renewable energy and improve power generation and transmission systems will be seriously affected by a shortage of engineers."Senior Executive of BP, August 2011. "A shortage of skilled Engineers is threatening to hamper efforts by BP to boost production in the North Sea. BP need 150-300 new workers each year but it cannot find people with the correct skills."Sir James Dyson at his Dyson Group office, August 2011. "Our country is facing a desperate shortage of engineers. There is something like 22,000 graduates each year but 37,000 vacancies. Dyson employs 2,700 across their group."

Now, lets look at the employment figures for those engineers who have been graduates for 6 months. These are figure quoted by Professor Emma Smith of Birmingham University at a conference in September 2011. The Professor uses data taken from Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA, from their latest survey.

"For Engineering Science, 46.4% of graduates were working in fields directly related to their degree. It is astonishing, in the light of claims of science graduate shortages, that so few new graduates go into related employment. Large numbers of newly qualified engineers report every year that they are working in non-graduate jobs such as cashiers and waiters. It isn't easy or automatic for qualified engineers to get related employment in the UK, despite the purported shortages."

So the well-meaning leaders encourage more to take up engineering at University, but the statistics from street level suggest there aren't that many jobs! If the University tuition fees were not going to rise so much then maybe it would matter less.

One piece of advice for young students is to check the validity of any news article for themselves using HESA job data or use websites such as Christian Muller's given below.

Mr. Christian Muller runs this website - http://www.uk-university-fees-and-student-finance.info/.

Christian spent many years as a Higher Education adviser at a Sixth Form College. Dozens of his past students would return from their Universities with valuable information about their progress. Courses with the best job prospects were identified and the information was always passed on to younger students. His two children were guided to sensible University courses and they now enjoy their secure well paid jobs.

Now, in early retirement, he is most concerned that our youngsters should not 'sleep-walk' their way to a crippling college debt.

If you want to discover more about the ways to avoid unnecessary levels of debt and avoid the misleading hype then visit Christian's website to find out more.

Original article