I think the idea of a £10,000 a year tuition fee scares people, yet that is a very round-about annual fee for a private school and it costs universities significantly more than that to educate students. At present, the rest of the funding comes from government or research council grants, but I think the HE sector needs some more transparency for people to see the true cost of higher education, rather than believe that universities get by on £3,225 a year per student. This transparency can extend further too, beyond degrees to include any vocational or professional development traning provided to make people better qualified or more able to do their jobs. If the true cost is clear from the start then it makes it easier for us to talk about who is paying for it.

The student loan system has the advantage that students have to take some responsibility for the funding of their education; the rate is more than competitive and they only have to repay it when they are benefitting financially. However, it does not show how much the state has paid for them and absolutely does not put any pressure on employers to even acknowledge the expense. I think there is scope for the student loan scheme to be extended so that anyone undertaking training can apply for it to be paid for through that system. Ultimately, they have the responsibility to pay it back anyway and as long as there are safeguards on the system it could work very well.

A lot is spoken about the value of a degree, however this is often done in terms of employability and seen as a requirement to get a better job. However this isn’t really the case, a good degree, or indeed good vocational training, gives someone the skills necessary to pursue a long and productive career. This training shouldn’t stop after three years – it should continue throughout someone’s career, as they look to add new skills and take on new opportunities. Some employers shirk all responsibility for professional development, however some have very well developed CPD or graduate entry schemes and this is to be commended.

The bottom line for me is that employers should contribute. They benefit directly from having an employee who has more qualifications and better skills. However, this benefit is clearly restricted to the time the employer will employ this person. A lot of risk exists in training staff who could then move to a different employer as soon as the training has been completed. I don’t believe the right solution is to contract people to ensure that any investment can be redeemed before the employee moves on. Something needs to be done across the board, or specifically with respect to the individual’s debt. Either an employer tax, which could be written off for companies already investing heavily in graduate schemes or CPD, or an employer contribution to the student loan. This does not have to be significantly high (I, for example, currently only pay £72 a month back), but could easily be matched by an employer and would half my student loan.

This transparency should help us as a nation understand what the true value of higher education is. At present, it is estimated that the financial benefit over the course of your career is around £100,000. If your education costs you £30,000 then you stand to benefit anyway. However, so does your employer, and surely they should be as responsible as you are for paying for it?

Cockpit progress Feb 14th 2010

At the weekend I will try and get a complete break, as I am feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment. I will try and do a few geocaches and some flying, and ignore my phone. After making some serious progress on my cockpit over the last couple of weeks I feel I will get a good opportunity to continue work on it – I have uploaded a picture of it here.

On a geocaching note, I have been out and about trying to log a few local caches which I haven’t had time to get previously, and when I picked up my sister from New Street yesterday I did a couple whilst waiting. As an aside, my third geocache has been published today: Curse of the FTF – Worcestershire #3 (Wichenford)

Location was less of a challenge as it was really limited to places I had been. My NHL team is the Canucks, as I have family in Vancouver and absolutely love the city (I cannot say that strongly enough, I have considered emigrating there). My MLB team was harder to pick, but after a trip to California around the time when the San Diego Padres were winning their division I have always considered them my team. No matter that they are the furthest from home, and I wasn’t swayed by the fact that the only baseball ground I have been in was the Rockies’ in Denver (ableit not to a game). So taking into account cities I have been to with an NFL team I was down to San Diego, San Fransisco, Seattle, Denver, Washington and New York.

Branding was a factor. A huge factor. Did I like the colour? Well, that put the Browns and the Bengals into the running for the orange in their hats. Did I like the name? Well, following a baseball team with a slightly religious reference in their name, naturally I liked the Saints and their logo looks very mature. I could live with the Chargers, the blue is nice and it is a simple enough logo.

And lastly and probably least, Reputation. I will say now that I am not a glory seeker, but I do like to see a team which has a bit of history. I say this as a West Brom fan, a team who has won the Football League and the FA Cup but now lingering between the bottom of the top division and the top of the second. So I ruled out teams like the Colts, Patriots and Giants and unfortunately this is where the Browns, Rams and Lions amongst others fell out of favour.

I spent most of this season following the Chargers – sidled on them being near the Padres. However, in the back of my mind they didn’t tick all of the boxes, having also lost to the Saints at Wembley. They will still be my AFC team especially having another great season and finishing as AFC runners-up. But ticking more of the boxes are the Saints. Maybe I was caught up in the atmosphere of my first NFL game which was Saints branded and which they won. Maybe it was watching them achieve a win in their first Superbowl appearance. Maybe it is a bit of sympathy over the way they have created a sense of unity to the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I don’t really care which it is, they have had a fantastic season and have impressed me in more ways than just winning the Superbowl. They are now officially my NFL team.

Now all I need to work out is who to support at Wembley in October: the 49ers or the Broncos. There is a bit of a trend establishing: Win at Wembley one year then go on to win the Superbowl (the Saints did it the following season, the Giants the same, and it should be noted that the Cardinals have lost at Wembley and subsequently at the Superbowl). Technically that makes the Patriots my bet to win next year, but for this game I’m undecided as I don’t feel a stronger affinity to either team (although I remember seeing Mile High stadium from an aeroplane). I should probably go with the home team, 49ers.

One thing I am finding is that the interface for MythTV (which it uses) is much better than in my old Sony PVR, it is able to ignore episodes have already been recorded or prioritise recordings which do not have another showing later on (even on another channel). It also doesn’t use the rather abused series flags (which E4 seems to incorrectly link a number of different programmes together) so I don’t have to delete programmes which I didn’t actually want to record.

As well as this I have been trying to sort out a problem with a program I wrote in my previous job. Even though I have just completed my first full-time week in my new job, I find I’m not completely disjointed from it. I’m sure this won’t last long, I am sure it is not uncommon for people moving within an institution. I’ve spent a lot of this week meeting people around the University and next week we should be able to put together the number model for the next five years, so interesting challenges all round.

So February presents an opportunity to me which I must try and take advantage of. I’ve got a bit more time to myself and to crack on with a few of my mini-projects. I have a little less singing to do: although I was at the Oratory last night and enjoyed another rendition of Lennox Berkeley’s Missa Brevis, and am back again on Ash Wednesday, I have most of my weekends to unwind in the way I want to and to tick off a few things on the list. Hopefully this will mean I can build the next stage of my home cockpit, decommission my old PVR (something I think my parents will be getting), and get back out onto the paths of Worcestershire to do a bit more walking and geocaching.