When you live in Scotland and your tuition's free...

And yet despite their lack of tuition fees fewer disadvantaged kids make it to university in Scotland than the rest of the UK.

<Snipped quote by McHaggis>

And yet despite their lack of tuition fees fewer disadvantaged kids make it to university in Scotland than the rest of the UK.

Someone sounds salty

<Snipped quote by Morden Man>

Someone sounds salty

No salt on my part. I'm happy to contribute a little more so that more working class kids get the chance at an education, better that than paying nothing and have access to higher education be the preserve of the affluent.

I'm happy to contribute a little more so that more working class kids get the chance at an education, better that than paying nothing and have access to higher education be the preserve of the affluent.

I'm not 100% sure that paying higher/any tuitions fees (Salt Warning: I was the first intake that the Coalition's fees hike hit) necessarily increases the accessibility of university to unprivileged backgrounds. Surely the university simply takes that money in lieu of a previous government subsidy? If it was all (or sufficiently) piled into getting disadvantaged students into universities, I'd kind of agree, but I'm not overwhelmingly aware that it is - especially with the free and accessible OU, which caters to literally anybody and everybody that can get their hands on a library card and read, now also fee-paying*.

All in all, paying fees is just a government expenditure-reducing exercise, which is up for debate depending on what degree you consider access to higher education a right or a private endeavour.

_{* Unless there's an OU grant that's given of which I'm unaware.}

<Snipped quote by Chapatrap>

Boston?

Fallout 4 better have some Irish lads in it. And not fake Irish lads like that pub owner in Fallout 3.

Holy shit, I saw these guys in Birmingham and they were fucking immense.

a) Yes, I'm allowed to like them because I'm _1/4 Irish. Like everybody else on the planet, I think it makes me special.
b) That's our Birmingham. Not America's shitty knockoff.

Holy shit, I saw these guys in Birmingham and they were fucking immense.

_1/4 Irish

God that makes me cringe.

When I was travelling in Aus, nothing I hated more than "I'm 1 fifth scottish on my mums side twice removed through marriage" <- Just an example.

On that note I'm Scottish.

Well, I'm either Black Country or ^3/4 General Midlands and ^1/4 Irish.

If it helps, I completely look like all my Irish relatives, and I think I've got some really subtle traces of Irish in my accent because I'm always asked if I'm Irish, including by Irish people.

Well I'm half-Glaswegian and half-whatever they call people from Edinburgh if it means anything. :D

...Ah, but in seriousness, yeah, it gets a bit annoying whenever people do that whole "oh wow, I'm [some fraction] [your nationality]!" thing and think that this isn't a bit patronizing, really. But yeah.

Well, if it means anything, i'm 3/4 English and 1/4 Welsh. Or something like that.

I'm something like Half-Polish. That's sort of like being from London, right?

The Irish fucking love it.

I used to work in an Irish bar (staff and clients) and they hated me until I was officially a quarter Irish at which point I was one of them.

Living in Swindon, ye old Wiltshire. Swindon is pretty soulless to be fair, our only history is a big fucking railway and a roundabout that I use everyday that seems to mindfuck the planet. Seriously, five mini roundabouts around a contra-rotating central roundabout is not that hard to navigate- it's not enough to be Magical....we haven't got a lot else in regards to culture I suppose. :D

I'm a 3rd Generation Pole, so I've lived here all my life, no blood from these Isles (grandparents/great grandparents on my father's side came over following the Second World War). I'm bilingual, and I have no Polish accent when I'm speaking English (virtually none at all), yet when I speak Polish, I am told I have no particular accent either in my second tongue. Strange. So I'm sort of between cultures, I can consider myself both English and Polish, though I speak the former language far easier.

EDIT: Oh, and tuition fees, they are not bad compared to 'Merica. We have £9,000 a year to pay for university, in my case, including ones for accommodation, it will come to about £50,000 for four years. This is owed to the government, but you only pay it back if you earn over 21K a year, and it's such a slow rate of payback, you'll probably die before you do. Doesn't affect your credit score, or anything- I see it as a graduate tax (which is less depressing than saying I'm 50K in debt to the government). Moving abroad or going over 60 writes it off, by the way (in the former case, you best be ready to stay the fuck away from the UK so long as to not get hounded), and if I'm honest, gets you a pretty good deal. You get more cash if you're disadvantaged, more owed money yes but this money is basically never going to get paid back (it is dodgy as fuck, but you have to live with that fact as this is now stupid levels of money), and it means that almost anyone can go to university if they want. The key word there is almost- and while I'm off to Bristol, I know that some people aren't too fond of it.

Manchester represent, yo.

Reigate here. Thats close to... well reigate is a place you should all of heard of.

Well I'm half-Glaswegian and half-whatever they call people from Edinburgh if it means anything. :D

...Ah, but in seriousness, yeah, it gets a bit annoying whenever people do that whole "oh wow, I'm [some fraction] [your nationality]!" thing and think that this isn't a bit patronizing, really. But yeah.

Weegie and Edinbugger

Like virtually everyone else who's English, I also have ancestors from Wales and Scotland. Born and bred in South London, but I'm moving to Yorkshire later this year.

Like virtually everyone else who's English, I also have ancestors from Wales and Scotland. Born and bred in South London, but I'm moving to Yorkshire later this year.

We'll pour one out for you.