Government cuts Founders' Building upkeep fund - The Founder
Government cuts Founders' Building upkeep fund - The Founder
Government cuts Founders' Building upkeep fund - The Founder
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Founder</strong> | Wednesday 25 November 2009<br />
News<br />
5<br />
News Comment<br />
<strong>The</strong> continuing<br />
failure of<br />
Student Finance<br />
England<br />
Ed Harper<br />
News Editor<br />
<strong>The</strong> fiasco resulting<br />
from Student<br />
Finance England’s<br />
complete ineptitude<br />
continues<br />
into is fourth<br />
month with the<br />
news that three<br />
quarters of English<br />
Universities<br />
have had to support<br />
students<br />
still waiting on<br />
financial support.<br />
Following<br />
a survey<br />
carried out by<br />
the BBC it has<br />
been found<br />
that on average<br />
universities have been forced to<br />
spend £44,000 supporting hundreds<br />
of students yet to receive their maintenance<br />
loans. Rubbing salt into the<br />
still open wound <strong>The</strong> Guardian revealed<br />
last week that the senior executives<br />
of the Student Loans Company<br />
were awarded £2million worth<br />
of bonuses last year while spending<br />
almost £111,000 on expenses.<br />
With the end of term now within<br />
sight and up to 50,000 still waiting,<br />
the failure of SFE has been complete<br />
and shameful. Stories of students<br />
being forced to defer their entry<br />
or simply drop out of their courses<br />
have been met by the same worn<br />
out excuses from SFE who continue<br />
to pin blame on anyone but themselves.<br />
With concerns about the<br />
increased numbers of students applying<br />
for courses being raised as far<br />
back as April, SFE had ample time<br />
to plan for increased demand and<br />
implement measures to avoid this<br />
crisis. Surely £2million could have<br />
helped resolve this problem? Adding<br />
further insult, the response of<br />
the SFE has been shockingly slow<br />
reiterating tired excuses and with<br />
the audacity to blame students for<br />
their own failings.<br />
Letting down students<br />
who have the grades, the<br />
places and the ambition to learn is<br />
disgraceful and embarrassing to the<br />
whole English university system;<br />
made worse by the fact that it is<br />
students from poorer backgrounds<br />
who are suffering the most. This<br />
problem should have been resolved<br />
within a fortnight of fresher’s week<br />
yet it drags on today with some students<br />
being told that they will be<br />
waiting till after Christmas for their<br />
first instalment, this simply is not<br />
good enough.<br />
<strong>The</strong> NUS is right to call for the<br />
resignation of Mr Seymour-Jackson<br />
who along with other executives at<br />
the SLC. Without exception those<br />
involved in this debacle should<br />
make an unreserved apology, not<br />
through another carefully worded<br />
press release and not through government<br />
ministers, but a direct<br />
personal admittance of failure to<br />
the students whose education they<br />
have hindered. This should be followed<br />
thorough public investigation<br />
into what exactly went wrong that,<br />
if finding evidence of negligence<br />
should soon be followed by resignations.<br />
Students three times more<br />
likely to be burgled<br />
Amy Norman<br />
Statistics released by the Home Office<br />
have revealed that students are<br />
the most likely group to experience<br />
to crime, with one in three students<br />
becoming a victim each year.<br />
Yet despite of this a survey carried<br />
out by the NUS has revealed that<br />
the majority of freshers are unconcerned<br />
about the risks of crime, including<br />
burglary.<br />
<strong>The</strong> survey shows that 84% of<br />
freshers are not concerned, while<br />
only 15.6% of the survey’s participants<br />
stating that crime is one<br />
of the things that most concerns<br />
them. However, the type of crime<br />
most freshers are worried about remains<br />
burglary, with 81.7% students<br />
choosing this over other options<br />
such as violent crime or sexual offences.<br />
According to the same survey, a<br />
third of students are not going to<br />
get insurance, the main reasons being<br />
that it is too expensive and too<br />
complicated to organise despite the<br />
NUS urging students to take out an<br />
insurance policy. Ben Whittaker,<br />
NUS Vice President for Welfare<br />
warned that “because most students<br />
live in communal households, they<br />
are particularly at risk from walkin<br />
theft, we would advise students<br />
tf Newsdesk<br />
newsdesk@thefounder.co.uk<br />
to take extra care when it comes to<br />
making sure their doors and windows<br />
are locked and to get insurance<br />
which covers walk-in theft”.<br />
A Home Office Minister commented<br />
on the survey, saying: “burglary<br />
has fallen nationally by 54 per<br />
cent since 1997 but I am determined<br />
to stay on the front foot in keeping<br />
crimes like this down. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Government</strong><br />
has provided £175,000 to the<br />
NUS to help educate students about<br />
the simple things they can do to<br />
protect themselves”. <strong>The</strong> money will<br />
be used to raise awareness of home<br />
safety, give practical help to freshers<br />
leaving home for the first time and<br />
encourage partnerships with the local<br />
community.<br />
When speaking of student safety<br />
in the local area, the Royal Holloway<br />
website states “Surrey is one of the<br />
safest counties in England in which<br />
to live and work [yet] all members of<br />
the community have to make every<br />
effort to minimise the risk to themselves<br />
and others”. When speaking<br />
of recent crime figures, Surrey Police<br />
Assistant Chief Constable Mark<br />
Rowley, said: “Surrey continues to<br />
maintain a level of crime per head<br />
of population that is 40% below the<br />
national average. Surrey remains<br />
one of the safest forces in England<br />
and Wales for all of the major crime<br />
categories of burglary, vehicle crime<br />
and violent crime”.<br />
Despite of this, there have been<br />
problems of burglaries in the local<br />
area, especially targeting student<br />
houses in Englefield Green. According<br />
to the Safer Neighbourhood<br />
Policing Team, last year saw a rise<br />
in burglaries in the neighbourhood<br />
in daytime and at night, with thefts<br />
ranging from small items to high<br />
value vehicles. In particular there<br />
were a number of burglaries in the<br />
Christmas vacation last year, where<br />
burglars took advantage of empty<br />
houses where students had returned<br />
home. Six incidents were reported<br />
to Surrey police between December<br />
18 and the New Year, where televisions,<br />
jewellery and other electrical<br />
equipment were stolen.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Home Office has said the<br />
main reason why students are so<br />
highly targeted is the fact they own<br />
more expensive consumer goods per<br />
head than the rest of the population,<br />
with the Complete University Guide<br />
stating students are “rich pickings”<br />
for petty criminals since they own<br />
laptops, mobile phones, digital cameras<br />
and other goods which are all<br />
easy to dispose of and sell on. This<br />
combined with the fact that most<br />
students live in shared accommodation,<br />
where there will be multiple<br />
items under one roof, means they<br />
remain an attractive target.