10 ways student life in 2014 is different than in the 1990s!

Having bitten the bullet and gone back to university 20 years after I left I am finding some huge differences:

1) Tuition Fees

I was an undergraduate back in the days when all UK students had their tuition fees paid by the government. No worries about paying back money when we finished it was all just done for us.

Now I have to borrow £9,000 off the government (still waiting to hear whether I have got it!) and pay it back once I earn a decent wage. It makes going to university a harder decision to make when you have that hanging over you..

2) Living Costs

I wasn't eligible for any grants for living costs but my parents gave me a decent monthly allowance. I worked every vacation to boost up the funds and made use of the bank's overdraft facility to the max. Student loans were just being introduced but I only borrowed £1,500 over the 4 years at university.

This time I have qualified for a small bursary but it is less than 2/3 of what I was earning. I have had to apply for maintenance loans and child care costs help to bridge the gap. Scarily none of these have been approved yet 2 weeks into my course..

3) Technology

When I enrolled at Swansea in 1991 I took with me a non Windows 286 PC to type up my essays on. We had lessons in how to use the new fangled Windows and used a Mainframe computer to write code to analyse data. There was no Internet.. communication was via pigeon holes in the department.

Much of our course material is on the university's Blackboard computer system. We are expected to have laptops to bring to training sessions. Communication is via e-mail and we use smart phones to capture evidence of our training.

Flash Back Friday: Romantic Student Break

I am really loving this idea of Karin's and hope I can keep on joining in! Today I have to show a snap I've taken of adjacent pictures in my photo album from 1991:

The occasion of the joint photos was my first ever romantic break away with a boyfriend! For some reason we had detoured to Iron Bridge on our way to have a day at Alton Towers... Being a pair of equally impoverished students we were taking turns at paying for our accommodation and it fell to me to book a B&B via the Tourist Office. At the time my surname was Jones and when we arrived at the B&B the owner said she had expected us to arrive under cover of darkness as she thought it was a cover name! I was only 20 at the time so it was embarrassing enough having my first double room booking without such a comment....