That said, a friend of mine runs a D&D club for the local primary school and there are a couple of kids whose parents forbid them from taking part, so the concern can be found, but I don't recall it being mainstream on this side of the pond.
]]>The second is that Scotland is currently running a deficit and its not clear how this would be funded; it could lead to most austerity measures. This would especially apply if Scotland were to join the EU and the EU required Scotland to keep to EU deficit targets (although in practice other EU members seem able to finesse this requirement, at least for short periods).
Economically, ScExit would be been more practical while the UK was in the EU. Brexit has decreased the economic viability of Scottish independence while simultaneously increasing the political reasons for leaving.
]]>Which isn't to say that the student loan system is well designed. It was introduced in part to expand university education while getting the funding off the government accounts; until very recently each loan was actually recorded as a reduction in public debt. Thankfully that scam has been stopped now, which indeed may explain why Sunak is keen to reduce university spending, as the treasury can't hide it anymore.
I see no evidence in a drop of demand for university places. if anything, the opposite; there are more people of school leaving age in the UK than in recent years and many of them are looking for a university education. The UK still attracts large numbers of international students (though less from the EU after Brexit). So if you have an investment in student housing, it's probably pretty secure.
Several people in the IT world are keen to show how people can learn IT online without having to go to Uni. That does work for some people, but not all, and it doesn't generalise to all subjects.
(As someone noted above, for most people a student loan functions as a graduate taz rather than a loan. Indeed, the wonks at WonkHE have suggested that students should be campaigning to have tuition fees doubled - the increase in university income would fund more staff to teach them and after the students graduate they'd still only be paying the same percentage of their salary each year. WonkHE are being facetious, of course, but it illustrates how the system doesn't actually function as a loan).
]]>I think the people who fund and lead the Conservative party would be happy to ditch Johnson, now that he has given them an 80-seat majority. They don't like all his talk of spending money and increasing national insurance; they was to get back to core tory values of austerity and cutting taxes. They'd be far happier with Sunak or Javid in charge. They couldn't move against Johnson when he was popular; once they sense he's an electoral liability, they'll get rid of him in an instant.
]]>As I mentioned at the break, it may be interesting to see how this affects distance learning. E.g. will we see facial recognition used to verify identity in online exams, and will this be countered by real-time deepfake video? Will bots take the entire course and gain the qualification on the student’s behalf?
]]>If Brexit happens, I expect the SNP to start pushing for another independence referendum immediately.
]]>