I'd say that all in all, I don't worry too much about the usefulness of degrees (that's vastly more down to the attitudes of the people getting the degrees, than the degrees themselves).
Maybe something along the lines of "tuition fees waived as long as you are within x% of credits passed" (either per term or "since start", per term may be better), with an enforced academic rest (or tuition paid) if that fails (say, 2 years out).
The intention with this is that as long as people stay vaguely on-track with their degree, they should be able to continue. The exact percentage cut-off is more a suggestion than anything else, but having it at 75% means roughly one extra term for a 2-year course of study.
I think there should be free education to degree level for a first degree commenced within a certain period of leaving fulltime education (maybe 3 or 5 years). And that there should be loans or partial payment of fees to those who want to do a first degree later in life.
I think people should be prepared to fund their own additional bachelors degrees and/or masters though.
IMO there needs to be fewer, better funded places. Which courses or institutions do you cut? An interesting question. Possibly a combination of the quality of the research at the institution, and what the economic contribution is of each the courses (this is what HEFCE use in their funding formula).
We also need to examine Further Education in this country as well as HE; some of the resources that are put into HE could be redirected to FE to design better courses, formalise the structure and work with employers to find out what skills they need for their workforce.
I think it'd be sad if non-vocational degrees became a luxury available only to the rich. Also it's hard to draw a clear line - maths is a good example in fact - there will be people who use their degree directly, those who use it Indirectly and those for whom it ends up completely irrelevant.
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Maybe something along the lines of "tuition fees waived as long as you are within x% of credits passed" (either per term or "since start", per term may be better), with an enforced academic rest (or tuition paid) if that fails (say, 2 years out).
The intention with this is that as long as people stay vaguely on-track with their degree, they should be able to continue. The exact percentage cut-off is more a suggestion than anything else, but having it at 75% means roughly one extra term for a 2-year course of study.
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I think people should be prepared to fund their own additional bachelors degrees and/or masters though.
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We also need to examine Further Education in this country as well as HE; some of the resources that are put into HE could be redirected to FE to design better courses, formalise the structure and work with employers to find out what skills they need for their workforce.
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