To AV, or not to AV: that is the question.

It’s the big day at the polls tomorrow where the poor souls of the British public will have to vote for who they want as their local councillor and of course that pesky referendum on the voting system.

Yes it’s the AV referendum, the debate that swept across the nation and was promptly swept under the carpet. In the end not many people seem to care about the issue, which is quite sad considering just how dramatic a change it would be if we were to adopt the Alternative Voting system.

Exceptional.

It has now been revealed by the universities across the country the fees that they will be charging students to study at their university in 2012.

Now, I already covered in my previous blog on April 1st (Cruel Intentions) which Northern universities were charging the full amount, or at least very close to it. At the time they were: Manchester, Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores, Aston, Birmingham, Coventry, and Loughborough.

Towards the end of that particular blog I said the following:

“Should the likes of Salford, Manchester Metropolitan, Sheffield or Sheffield Hallam succumb to charging £9,000 a year then the North of England might as well give up.”

Cruel Intentions.

It was revealed last week that more universities had thrown their hats into the ring of nine hundred tenners and stated their intention to charge forthcoming students the maximum tuition fee available to them.

There are now 24 universities that have stated their intentions in terms of fees. Possibly most significant of all of last week’s announcements was the one made by Manchester University.

Yes, the pompous older sibling of the three Manchester universities became the first Northern institution to state their intent to charge the maximum tuition fee of £9,000 a year. Incredibly bad news for the North West.

Surprise Surprise.

Earlier this week I was sat at home minding my own business browsing the BBC News website when I came across a story so shocking I had to put down my brew to avoid any unnecessary scolding.

Cambridge ‘planning to raise fees to £9,000’