:00:03. > :00:09.It will cost up to �9,000 a year to get a degree. But asking questions
:00:09. > :00:19.costs nothing. What is the point of the university for the creative
:00:19. > :00:23.
:00:23. > :00:30.arts? University fees explained. �75,000! And some of the rarest,
:00:30. > :00:34.big cats in the world born and bred in Kent. We are keeping the species
:00:34. > :00:38.alive, we are keeping the species pure so one day we will be in a
:00:38. > :00:43.position we can release the species back into the wild. I am Natalie
:00:43. > :00:53.Graham with untold stories closer to home. From all around Kent and
:00:53. > :01:07.
:01:07. > :01:09.For tonight's programme we are in at the heart of the South Downs. It
:01:09. > :01:13.is a stone's throw from two universities here, Sussex and
:01:13. > :01:17.Brighton. Tonight we have a special edition
:01:17. > :01:26.on higher education in Kent and Sussex. To kick-off, here's the
:01:26. > :01:32.financial expert Alvin Hall. Young, confused and afraid? This is
:01:32. > :01:41.what thousands of teenagers across Britain fear. A lifetime on the run.
:01:41. > :01:46.But what is chasing them? Student debt. But is it really going to be
:01:46. > :01:51.the horror movie we have been led to believe? Whether you think next
:01:51. > :01:55.year's hike in fees is fair or not, it is happening. Young people need
:01:55. > :01:59.to know the facts. I am going to show you what a degree will really
:01:59. > :02:02.cost and how you can avoid those fees altogether.
:02:02. > :02:11.Next year, English universities will charge up to �9,000 a year
:02:11. > :02:16.with living costs on top, graduates can face debts of �50,000. How much
:02:16. > :02:21.will they actually end up paying back. I have come to meet some
:02:21. > :02:23.sixth-formers in Birmingham to show them. I think the number will shock
:02:23. > :02:26.them. I think that earning interest over
:02:26. > :02:31.such a long time of paying back that alone really is a number that
:02:31. > :02:37.most people do not think about. Let's imagine you graduate from
:02:37. > :02:45.university with �50,000 worth of debt. And you get a high-paying job
:02:46. > :02:53.like we expect. How much of that money do you have to pay back?
:02:53. > :03:03.I am not quite sure. All of it? You have to pay back all of it and more.
:03:03. > :03:06.
:03:06. > :03:12.Interest. Interest. Oh God, is right. �75,000.
:03:12. > :03:15.Is that just for one person? That is just for one person.
:03:15. > :03:21.Is that for the average degree, three years?
:03:21. > :03:24.It is. If you take out the maximum loan. But what if, for some reason,
:03:24. > :03:34.their careers do not go as planned and they never earned more than
:03:34. > :03:39.�21,000 a year. The amount you have to pay back is zero. So, what is
:03:40. > :03:44.going on? Basically, the repayment of the loan works like taxes. The
:03:44. > :03:50.more you earn, the more you pay back. If you never earn above a
:03:50. > :03:58.certain amount, you never pay back a penny. The new independent task
:03:58. > :04:01.force on student finance is led by Martin Lewis. The biggest confusion
:04:01. > :04:07.out there is that people confuse the price tag, these �9,000 fees,
:04:07. > :04:12.total of �50,000 at the end of university, with the actual cost.
:04:12. > :04:16.Many people will not come close to repaying in full what they borrowed.
:04:16. > :04:19.Some will not pay anything at all. The bewildering fact that we are
:04:19. > :04:24.putting people off going to university because they are looking
:04:24. > :04:30.at the price tag, not the cost is the biggest problem. Most graduates
:04:30. > :04:34.will face large debt. Is there any way of avoiding the fees. You can
:04:34. > :04:42.study abroad. At the recent Student World Fair in London, teenagers
:04:42. > :04:47.discovered just how much they can save. I think everyone would rather
:04:47. > :04:50.go to university where they are paying �8,000 cheaper than the UK.
:04:50. > :04:54.The fees are a lot cheaper. That is more attractive so when you come
:04:54. > :04:59.out you will not be in so much debt. Dozens of universities across
:04:59. > :05:04.Europe offer courses taught in English. These differ from country
:05:04. > :05:07.to country, but in Scandinavia it is free. In Denmark there is no
:05:07. > :05:10.tuition fees at all because the Danish government pays for Danish
:05:10. > :05:19.students and according to EU rules we have to treat other EU citizens
:05:19. > :05:25.alike. Harriet has already taken the plunge. She is off back to
:05:25. > :05:31.university in Slovakia. I'm am trying to save money on my flights,
:05:31. > :05:36.so hand-luggage it is. Over there she saves a fortune on living costs
:05:36. > :05:39.spending just �100 a month. I caught up with her. What advice
:05:39. > :05:46.would you give to anyone considering doing what you have
:05:46. > :05:53.done? If you are even considering it, I think you should go for it.
:05:53. > :06:03.It is worth doing, you have to be brave, but I have never looked back.
:06:03. > :06:09.
:06:09. > :06:18.Time is up. I want my money. I want my 50 grand. So studying overseas
:06:18. > :06:22.may be one way to avoid the debt. But there are down sides. If you
:06:22. > :06:24.study abroad, the government here will not give you a loan. Only some
:06:24. > :06:31.courses are taught in English and some employers might not recognise
:06:31. > :06:36.foreign degrees. You need to do your homework. Another way of
:06:36. > :06:41.beating the fees is to get someone else to pay, but who? London's
:06:41. > :06:46.financial heartland is a good place to look. Don't be fooled by power
:06:46. > :06:54.suits, believe it or not, these youngsters are all freshers. They
:06:55. > :06:58.are being sponsored by KPMG. entire package was a degree, a
:06:58. > :07:05.salary, tuition fees are paid and a job at the end and you were helped
:07:05. > :07:13.to become a qualified and chartered accountant. It sounds too good to
:07:13. > :07:16.be true. There is no catch. I still have not seen a catch. As with
:07:16. > :07:20.everything in life, you have to work hard, that is the only catch,
:07:20. > :07:29.I guess. And the man who runs the programme tells me KPMG does not
:07:29. > :07:33.offer the stereotypical student experience. This is an intensive
:07:33. > :07:43.programme. They have got to work for us, they have got to study for
:07:43. > :07:45.their degree. It requires hard work. That is what we ask of the students.
:07:45. > :07:55.Then there are bursaries, students from low-income families can get
:07:55. > :07:58.
:07:58. > :08:07.But is there another way of avoiding the debt? Well, you can
:08:07. > :08:10.pay up front. 16 year-old Safina Adams is trying to do just that. As
:08:10. > :08:17.well as studying for her A-levels, she sells beauty products on her
:08:17. > :08:20.website. I started my business because I wanted to save up for
:08:20. > :08:25.university and my parents said because of the rise in the
:08:25. > :08:29.university fees, it would be too much for them to pay for it. I am
:08:29. > :08:35.hoping to not get in debt because it takes a long time to get out of
:08:35. > :08:40.debt and I do not want to be in that place. The government allows
:08:40. > :08:42.students to pay up front, but most will have to take out a loan. But
:08:43. > :08:50.one financial expert believes that graduates could end up paying back
:08:50. > :08:57.far more than anyone has predicted. This financial journalist is
:08:57. > :09:02.warning students to be aware. think the problem is the deal is
:09:02. > :09:05.actually not a deal. There are all these numbers flying about saying
:09:05. > :09:08.you'll be charged a certain rate of interest on the loan and your
:09:08. > :09:12.repayments will start at �21,000, over that you will be paying a
:09:12. > :09:17.percentage. None of that is in the contract that the students signed
:09:18. > :09:23.up for. In fact, the Government can change those numbers if they want
:09:23. > :09:29.to in five years' time, 10 years' time, 20 years' time. Students
:09:30. > :09:33.could end up paying a lot more. big changes would have to be
:09:33. > :09:38.approved by Parliament. Like many Americans, I graduated with the
:09:38. > :09:41.equivalent of tens of thousands of pounds worth of debt. It was
:09:41. > :09:51.daunting, but if you know the fact, student debt does not have to be
:09:51. > :09:57.
:09:57. > :10:07.scary. I confronted it, and so can Alvin Hall reporting. Coming up
:10:07. > :10:07.
:10:08. > :10:11.later, more on universities as part I would always advise a student to
:10:11. > :10:19.pursue their interest, to pursue their passions. By doing that,
:10:19. > :10:23.their employability will take care When you think of the big cat
:10:23. > :10:33.habitats, what kind of places come to mind? The Serengeti, Cyberia,
:10:33. > :10:39.
:10:39. > :10:46.You probably will not have seen them, and you certainly will not
:10:46. > :10:49.have met them, but you might have heard them. Exotic, wild and
:10:49. > :10:59.dangerous creatures that, for now at least, have made their home away
:10:59. > :11:02.
:11:02. > :11:05.from public eyes, right in the And we have been given exclusive
:11:05. > :11:11.access behind the scenes to meet the neighbours, some of the world's
:11:11. > :11:17.rarest big cats. This is the Wildlife Heritage
:11:17. > :11:22.Foundation's big cat sanctuary. Tucked away in the Kent countryside,
:11:22. > :11:32.not many people know it is here. But 36 big cats live here, from
:11:32. > :11:34.
:11:34. > :11:42.lions to leopards to lynx and most But we are going to concentrate on
:11:42. > :11:47.two species. Spots and stripes. For the stripes we have the Sumatran
:11:47. > :11:56.tiger. Nias is a bit special, it is thought only 200 pure Sumatran
:11:56. > :12:03.tigers like him are left on his native island of Sumatra. And
:12:03. > :12:07.representing the spots is Hogar the Amur Leopard. He is from the far
:12:07. > :12:13.east of Russia. Experts believe only about 30 of these leopards
:12:13. > :12:20.exist in the wild. The situation is critical and that makes Hoger one
:12:20. > :12:24.of the rarest big cats in the world. These cats are part of an
:12:24. > :12:28.international mission to save their species from extinction. With time
:12:28. > :12:38.running out and so few of them left in the wild, how are they going to
:12:38. > :12:40.
:12:40. > :12:44.Brian Badger is the sanctuary manager. He works with zoos across
:12:44. > :12:49.the world breeding endangered big cats to release into the wild.
:12:49. > :12:51.These cats are so beautiful, but they are in captivity. How will
:12:51. > :12:58.they help an endangered species because this animal will never go
:12:58. > :13:02.in the wild. It is important that we keep what we like to call a
:13:02. > :13:05.genetic arc. We're keeping the species alive, we are keeping the
:13:05. > :13:08.species pure so that one day, hopefully, the world will sort
:13:08. > :13:14.itself out and we will be in a position where we can release them
:13:14. > :13:21.back into the wild. Preserving endangered species is a worldwide
:13:21. > :13:28.operation and it is all controlled Preserving endangered species is a
:13:28. > :13:32.worldwide operation and it is all It is like a giant dating agency
:13:32. > :13:35.for endangered species and it deals with genetics. The idea is that you
:13:35. > :13:39.need to keep the members of the family as far apart as you possibly
:13:39. > :13:48.can so you do not get in breeding and all the problems that are
:13:48. > :13:53.related to that. Creating the purest bloodline is a tricky task.
:13:53. > :13:57.Big cats are brought to the sanctuary from all over the world.
:13:57. > :14:02.Nias the Sumatran tiger has hit it off with his partner Puna. Brian is
:14:02. > :14:05.convinced she is pregnant. He thinks there will be cubs in a few
:14:05. > :14:10.weeks' time. How can you tell she is pregnant?
:14:10. > :14:17.She becomes very aggressive, very secretive. She is stalking through
:14:17. > :14:21.the grass. How long do you think before they are born? If I was to
:14:21. > :14:25.hazard a guess, probably about two weeks. And she was doing all that
:14:25. > :14:29.running around? Tigers are solitary animals, the
:14:29. > :14:32.fact that she is pregnant, she cannot treat that as a disability.
:14:32. > :14:35.She still has to hunt she still has to defend herself she still has to
:14:35. > :14:39.travel around and so if she makes herself hugely pregnant with huge
:14:39. > :14:41.cubs and slouching around she is not going to survive in the wild.
:14:41. > :14:45.Everything is prepared for the arrival of Puna's cubs. But there
:14:45. > :14:49.is no time for staff at this sanctuary to relax, there is a new
:14:49. > :14:53.cat in town. This leopard has travelled all the
:14:53. > :14:58.way from a zoo in the Czech Republic to meet with Xizi. It is
:14:58. > :15:02.not exactly love at first sight. They are aware of each other, but
:15:02. > :15:05.there is a barrier between their enclosures. There is a gap between
:15:05. > :15:13.each of those planks of wood so they can slowly get themselves
:15:13. > :15:16.acquainted. Slowly but surely what we will start to do it is remove
:15:16. > :15:22.periodically some of the planks so they will start appearing to each
:15:22. > :15:25.other. That will give us a good guide. Just because you have a male
:15:25. > :15:30.and female, it does not make them a couple. Today Hogar is being
:15:30. > :15:33.checked out to see if he is suitable for the breeding programme.
:15:33. > :15:42.He is in good hands as tests will be carried out by top international
:15:42. > :15:46.wildlife vet John Lewis. John has got to make sure that
:15:46. > :15:51.Hogar has been fully anaesthetised so it is safe to enter the cage and
:15:51. > :15:59.work on him. We have to make certain he is asleep, so he is not
:15:59. > :16:05.responding to the jaw opening or his ears been pinched. -- being a.
:16:05. > :16:10.Me pinching hard between his toes. 1,2,3. Good, good. We take a lot of
:16:10. > :16:13.samples, and a lot of the samples are blood. We take hair samples and
:16:13. > :16:18.various other things. We can do tests on those samples, but we also
:16:18. > :16:22.have to examine him in detail from nose to tail. We need to be really
:16:22. > :16:24.convinced that all parts of him are healthy, that he has no genetic
:16:24. > :16:34.defects, that he is not carrying diseases which he is not suffering
:16:34. > :16:35.
:16:35. > :16:40.from but other cats here may suffer from. We have got to be sure we
:16:40. > :16:44.have a good specimen for breeding. It is hoped he will get the all-
:16:44. > :16:47.clear to mate with Xizi. Any cubs they produce will be a huge leap
:16:47. > :16:54.forward in the plans to reintroduce Amur leopards to their native land
:16:54. > :16:58.in the far east of Russia. We do not just breed leopards in
:16:58. > :17:02.captivity and throw them out into the wild, that would not work. The
:17:02. > :17:05.only way it can be done is to breed these leopards in captivity, to
:17:05. > :17:08.make certain they are very healthy, to take some, young adult leopards
:17:08. > :17:18.from that programme and keep them in a captive facility next to where
:17:18. > :17:18.
:17:18. > :17:24.you're going to release them. It is not those leopards that are
:17:24. > :17:27.released, it is their offspring. They have to breed there. That
:17:27. > :17:29.means that the cubs born there are born in Russian conditions, they
:17:29. > :17:33.experienced Russian weather, they get exposed to Russian diseases,
:17:33. > :17:43.they feed on live prey like wild leopards do, and they have a chance
:17:43. > :17:43.
:17:43. > :17:47.of surviving. If the whole scheme goes ahead, this would be the first
:17:47. > :17:53.time it has been done. They are stunning creatures. To lose them
:17:53. > :17:58.would be an indescribable tragedy. Luckily, Hogar got the all-clear,
:17:58. > :18:02.but he has still not been introduced to Xizi. In the wild,
:18:02. > :18:10.leopards only ever come together to meet, so Brian has to make sure the
:18:10. > :18:14.timing is exactly right. -- made a. Xizi has to be in season otherwise
:18:14. > :18:17.they will fight and could end up killing each other. It will
:18:17. > :18:27.probably be a good few months until they are ready to mate so for now
:18:27. > :18:29.
:18:29. > :18:34.But for the Sumatran tigers, the waiting game is over. Puna is now
:18:34. > :18:43.the proud mum of two male tiger cubs. They are five weeks old and I
:18:43. > :18:47.am back to meet them. Brian has invited me to do the
:18:47. > :18:50.health check with him. Not many people had been inside to see the
:18:50. > :18:57.cubs like this. Not many people in the world have probably seen tiger
:18:57. > :19:07.cubs this close. I'm really excited Let's go. He is picking one up.
:19:07. > :19:08.
:19:08. > :19:14.Hello. You might have to give me a hand, is that OK? Yes. Oh my gosh.
:19:14. > :19:22.Oh my gosh. How soon before they become too dangerous to handle?
:19:22. > :19:29.They are fully weaned, normally, by 10 - 15 weeks. Any time after that
:19:29. > :19:33.they get to the size of a labrador or, that sort of size. Even now,
:19:33. > :19:39.that little yawn, they have got a set of teeth and a full set of
:19:39. > :19:43.claws. How does it feel having these cubs here? It is fantastic.
:19:43. > :19:49.As a breeding centre, this is what it is all about. To produce
:19:49. > :19:52.something so rare is very special. And so sad when they go? In some
:19:52. > :19:58.ways. You get attached to them, though we are not here for us,
:19:58. > :20:03.we're here for them. There are only 200 Sumatra tigers left in the wild
:20:03. > :20:08.in the world. Here we have got two little clubs that are going to help
:20:08. > :20:18.the programme. Let's hope that one day these guys will be the
:20:18. > :20:27.
:20:27. > :20:32.grandparents of a new, wild Kaddy Lee-Preston reporting.
:20:32. > :20:35.Earlier, we saw Alvin Hall's consumer guide for students. Now,
:20:35. > :20:38.we've got five universities here in the south-east. What have they got
:20:38. > :20:48.to offer in return for your cash? Is it just the chance of getting a
:20:48. > :20:50.
:20:50. > :20:55.good job, or is it more than that? When it all kicked off over the
:20:56. > :20:59.tuition fees... If 50,000 students have come to protest peacefully.
:20:59. > :21:07.Our reporter was in the thick of it. They are in jeopardy are being
:21:07. > :21:10.undermined by the violent actions of a small minority. He was the
:21:10. > :21:17.President of the National Student of unions -- National Union of
:21:17. > :21:22.Students at the time. The silence, silence. War we are not going to
:21:22. > :21:27.put up with an hour education being treated like this. Hello. Students
:21:27. > :21:30.clearly don't like it, but now a university can charge up to �9,000
:21:30. > :21:36.per year. It must a been a busy time.
:21:36. > :21:39.very tough, pretty hairy at times. A survey commissioned by Inside Out
:21:39. > :21:42.suggests that one in 10 A-level students had been put off
:21:43. > :21:47.university because of the increasing tuition fees, but many
:21:47. > :21:52.of the rest of focused on getting a job to pay the loans back. But the
:21:52. > :21:57.thing is, are we losing sight of what a university is actually for?
:21:57. > :22:02.It is a good question. And we would like an answer. So we have got a
:22:02. > :22:06.plan, haven't we? Yes, we are going to go to every university in the
:22:06. > :22:10.south-east and give them some cold, hard facts and find out what we are
:22:10. > :22:20.going to get for our money. First, the University for the Creative
:22:20. > :22:23.Arts. Hansson the Hibs and lean forward. UCA has campuses in
:22:23. > :22:30.Maidstone and Rogers de amongst others, and maybe teach art design
:22:30. > :22:36.and fashion. Cadillac is the 152nd university in terms of satisfaction
:22:36. > :22:39.-- UCA. 89.8% of students get a job or go on into full-time study.
:22:39. > :22:44.The league table performances are generally very poor and the
:22:44. > :22:49.institution has taken the decision to charge �1,500 across the board.
:22:49. > :22:52.Would you consider that far you for money? Certainly. You have to
:22:53. > :22:57.consider that students have access to our facilities, a studio,
:22:57. > :23:01.technical facilities, technical staff, academic staff, in a quite
:23:01. > :23:06.different way to students at other universities. And so it was quite
:23:06. > :23:12.impossible, I think, to put the tuition fees any lower. I think it
:23:12. > :23:20.is value for money. I would like to ask a deceptively simple question.
:23:20. > :23:23.The so what is the point of the university for the creative arts?
:23:23. > :23:27.think it is history of art and design, media and arts, creative
:23:27. > :23:31.arts and education, and it is a demanding education but it has been
:23:31. > :23:38.at the core of the success of British great -- creative industry
:23:38. > :23:45.for the last 100 years. Next up, the University of Brighton. They
:23:45. > :23:49.rate 92nd in the Countryfile student satisfaction. 88.5% get
:23:49. > :23:53.jobs -- in the country before student satisfaction. Will we
:23:53. > :23:59.wanted to ask what is the point at the University of Brighton but they
:23:59. > :24:09.told us no one was available for comment. Next, Canterbury
:24:09. > :24:11.
:24:11. > :24:21.Christchurch University. Students rated it as number 110. Employment,
:24:21. > :24:22.
:24:22. > :24:26.94.3%. They charge �8,500. We felt we should be able to stand up in
:24:26. > :24:31.front of our communities and our students and say, this is value-
:24:31. > :24:36.for-money. So you can genuinely say, hand on heart, it was not an
:24:36. > :24:41.opportunity to cash in and make some money out of this and spend it
:24:41. > :24:46.wherever else you wanted to? That is exactly the position we have
:24:46. > :24:51.taken. So what is the point of Canterbury Christ Church
:24:51. > :24:55.University? The point of the university is to prepare people.
:24:55. > :25:02.Prepare people for a life which is more fulfilling a, a more
:25:02. > :25:07.interesting, hopefully, which provides them with employment,
:25:07. > :25:12.which is stimulating and support the quality of life, but actually
:25:12. > :25:19.encourages them to ask a critical questions in a society where, I
:25:19. > :25:26.fear, that capacity is actually been lost. Next up, it's the
:25:26. > :25:31.University of Sussex. Sussex's in the students' chart at number 30.
:25:31. > :25:34.92.2% get jobs or go on to further education. We wanted to ask what is
:25:35. > :25:43.the point of Sussex University but they told us that no one was
:25:43. > :25:51.available to comment. So we move on. Next, the University of Kent. They
:25:51. > :25:55.are numbered 26 in the chart. Their employment number is 91%.
:25:55. > :26:00.You have taken the decision to charge �9,000 across the board,
:26:00. > :26:03.does it represent value for money for students? It is absolute value
:26:04. > :26:08.for money. I'm sure the real cost is higher when you hate take into
:26:08. > :26:12.account the costs of what we have to do. What would you consider to
:26:12. > :26:15.be the point at the University of Kent? I believe it is about the
:26:15. > :26:19.creation and communication of knowledge. We love discovering new
:26:19. > :26:23.things which is important in all disciplines, and communicating that
:26:23. > :26:27.two other generations and allowing them not just to be taught to but
:26:27. > :26:31.to understand what it means to develop themselves. University
:26:31. > :26:34.should be life-changing. Because of a whole debate over tuition fees,
:26:34. > :26:39.people have understandably been focused on the cost of the course,
:26:39. > :26:43.and whether there would be a good job at the end of it. However...
:26:43. > :26:48.Are we in danger of losing sight of what the university is actually
:26:48. > :26:53.for? I think there is a danger of that, actually. The focus on
:26:53. > :26:57.employability has been a little too strong. That must depend on the
:26:57. > :27:01.university. Here, we have been clear ever since we started talking
:27:01. > :27:03.about changes, pre-Brown, that universities are about creation of
:27:03. > :27:09.knowledge and research and communication of knowledge,
:27:09. > :27:17.teaching. That combination. notion that a university is solely
:27:17. > :27:22.the deliverer of an insurance policy for the future is actually a
:27:22. > :27:26.massive step back in terms of society and -- in this country,
:27:26. > :27:29.because universities are much more than that. I would always advise
:27:29. > :27:32.the students to pursue their interests and their passions, and I
:27:32. > :27:38.think by doing that, their employability will pretty much take
:27:38. > :27:42.care of itself. As we had earlier, it is suggested that one in 10 A-
:27:42. > :27:48.level students have been put off university. But if you do go, don't
:27:48. > :27:52.forget what the university is actually for. Why was the first
:27:52. > :27:57.person in my family to go to university -- I was. And I have
:27:57. > :28:02.enjoyed a much greater quality of life. I have a richer environment
:28:02. > :28:07.in which I operate, an environment in which I can ask questions, in
:28:07. > :28:11.which I can opt sop knowledge -- absorb knowledge and in which I
:28:11. > :28:15.feel confident to debate and have discourse. By parents didn't have
:28:16. > :28:20.that and that is what university education did for me and that is
:28:20. > :28:23.what it is all about. Now, if you want any more
:28:23. > :28:27.information on tonight's show, you can visit our local Kent or Sussex