Ellie went to Scotland

Would you like to go to Bulgaria?” I was asked by my Police Cadet Leader. I was a slightly awkward and nervous teen, but in spite of this I seized the opportunity and went on to travel to the other side of Europe and experience a series of consequential events, that, two years later continue to impact who I feel I am and what I do today. A strong and cliché filled statement but one that shows why I am so passionate about being a EuroPeer...and how I am a writing newbie!

Therefore, I jumped at the invitation to promote international opportunities with fellow EuroPeers and Momentum World at the National Volunteer Police Cadet Conference. It took place over the first weekend of June and was set in Tulliallan, Scotland - a fairy tale perfect location with eerily good weather. 

The attendees were a blend of young leaders, Police Officers of various ranks, volunteers and other youth invested organisations; likeminded in that they all valued young people. It made for a warm environment and we spent the first evening getting to know one another over a glass of apple juice. 

Saturday at 2pm was our slot to promote EuroPean Opportunities. Each EuroPeer to share our own story, much like we had our EuroPeers Website (http://www.europeers.uk ). At 1.54pm I began to attempt to do some subtle power poses in my chair as I waited for our turn.

Momentum World and fellow EuroPeers each gave unique and insights into international experiences - I was feeling adventure ready and inspired by my peers' words. Too suddenly it was my turn to speak; I looked at the 200 hundred large audience with bundles of life experience and clutched tighter on to the notepad that contained a few scribbled and illegible bullets points. I wasn’t wearing my glasses, but I imagined the audience all to be wearing beaming smiles, so I relaxed slightly, took a breath and shared my story. My thought is that believing in our EuroPeers ethos and having experienced what I was saying, all helped me to project this passion/stumble over words excitably and find a momentary confidence to promote our cause.

As a team we hoped for the audience to feel what we were saying and in turn go on to get involved with international opportunities, whether volunteering on a project, creating a project or promoting opportunities to their cadets. That Saturday evening - pre pub quiz, we held an optional evening meeting for people to find out more...the room was full of curiosity, ideas for cadet projects and energy - it was incredible. 

I left the weekend feeling privileged to have been able to share my experiences towards such a cause and moreover, overwhelmingly excited for each cadet/young person that has international journey awaiting them! 

By Ellie Devereux

University tuition fees in Britain

University tuition fees in Britain were introduced in September 1998 by the Labour government under Tony Blair as a way of funding undergraduate and postgraduate students at university. Since John Major’s initial commissioning for an inquiry into the funding of British higher education in May 1996, tuition costs in England have since increased to £9,000 per year. From September 2016, maintenance grants will be scrapped and it is likely that tuition loans will increase further in order to make up for the scrapped grants. From 2017, tuition costs will further increase, in order to keep up with inflation.

All this has subsequently led to England officially holding the rank of having the most expensive university costs in the world, ahead of even the United States, Australia and Switzerland. But why is this the case? Why does it now cost so much for a student to study and earn a degree in England? Why should a student get into so much future debt simply for wanting to study what they love? Will this deter future would-be university students from applying for a place at university?

The first thing that we should understand about university tuition costs in Britain is that it differs depending on which constituent country you are seeking to study in. English university fees are capped at £9,000 per year; Welsh university fees are also capped at £9,000 per year, but Welsh students are also able to apply for fee grants of up to £5,190, in addition to a loan of £3,810 to cover these costs; Scotland has been highly praised by students for charging no university fees and Northern Ireland only charges its university students a maximum of £3,805. Furthermore, the British government has recently stated that as of 2017, high-ranking universities – primarily Russell Group universities – will be able to raise their respective tuition costs higher than the £9,000 cap. Factors given for this potential increase in tuition costs include student satisfaction, teaching quality and employment outcomes.

Put simply, the better the university, the higher the costs.

So is it really justified for these high-ranking universities to take more money out of their students’ pockets, thereby increasing their student debt? If so, will future would-be applicants be enticed into applying for university study? In 2016, the Guardian newspaper published a report that stated that the number of disadvantaged students applying for English universities has in fact increased by 72% from 2006 to 2015, beating the number of applicants for other universities in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Why is it that, despite their extremely high costs, English universities continue to attract not only British students, but also foreign students en masse? According to a number of governmental studies, the answer is simply that English universities are some of the most prestigious in the world and continue to offer an extremely high quality of education among its students. This is also reflected in the most recent drop-out statistics, which show that the student drop-out rate – since the tuition fees rose to £9,000 in 2010 – are at their lowest among English universities, especially among Russell Group and other high-ranking universities. This is in contrast to the increasing number of students dropping out of Scottish universities, which have since reached their highest levels in years.

Again, from this we can see that despite the increasing costs in university tuition, students continue to apply for English universities en masse. One theory is that the amount of debt that the student will eventually have to pay off is so high, it actually pushes the student to remain in university and work harder in order to achieve a better career with a high level of income, thereby making it easier to pay back their student debt.

For a student who is thinking about applying for university in Britain, the best advice anybody could give is that applying is quite possibly one of the best decisions a student can make in their entire academic life. Why? Because university – for all its high tuition costs and the future student debt that comes after graduation – provides the best education a student could possibly ever wish to get in whatever field of study they choose to pursue, and it opens so many doors for people in life that it is definitely worth the £9,000 a year – if you’re studying at an English or Welsh university. Especially with a strong postgraduate degree in the best fields of study, employment post-university will almost certainly provide a veteran student with income high enough to enable them to comfortably manage their student debts without so much worry and stress to hinder them in their respective future.

Author: Stefan Brakus

EuroPeers UK event in cooperation with Solent University in Southampton

Ilona Kuzak, a member of the EuroPeers UK, in partnership with Southampton Solent University, is co-hosting a conference on opportunities for young people on Tuesday, May 3rd. Topics will include Erasmus+ and other European-funded opportunities, youth entrepreneurship, and more. Come join us at this event to learn about how you can take advantage of what the EU has to offer and take the next steps towards your career! Get a free ticket HERE

EuroPeers UK Launch Report

On the 30th March 2016, after months of coordination and organisation, EuroPeers and invited guests came together at Europe House to celebrate the launch of the EuroPeers UK network.

The launch was hosted by Abdul and Ellie, two EuroPeers UK steering group members.

Andrew Hadley, CEO of Momentum World, gave an impassioned speech about the importance of the EuroPeers UK, the objectives for the network, and how they plan on achieving said objectives.

The hosts then each gave a speech about why they decided to be involved in EuroPeers. Ellie touched on the importance of following your passion and working hard, while Abdul focused on how social action projects have changed him for the better.  Eddie from Lansons PR also spoke about how his experiences in Europe have enhanced his life.

There are hundreds of partner organizations in the UK making a positive impact on the lives of young people and representatives from two of these – Employability Town and The ASHA Centre came along to give a presentation on their astounding work.  Although different, they both carry out some great work to make big long-term transformations in the lives of young people.

Ilona, a EuroPeers steering group member, had just flown in from Poland but made sure that she was present to give a speech on her impressive experience in working with young people. She had also taken part in extensive training with the German branch of EuroPeers.

In order to give a more holistic view to the role of the EU, Dr. Andreas Staab who is Director of the European Policy Information Centre  gave a speech on his personal experience of living in the EU. He gave a balanced, and at times humorous recollection of his experiences!

Daniel Ambrus, Head of Communication at European Commission Representation UK also gave a well-balanced speech on his experiences of living in the EU.

Andrew Hadley gave a closing speech to emphasise the direction of EuroPeers UK, request feedback from attendees and thank stakeholders for making the event a success.

Attendees stayed on for an hour or so to network and discuss the launch and how they might be of assistance.

It was very encouraging to see the level of support offered from attendees and in the lead up to the event. Six months ago, the EuroPeers UK was just a name, small, and logo-less!

We would like to express our gratitude to the attendees, the EuroPeers UK steering group members, the European Commission Representation in London, Lansons PR, and Momentum World for providing significant resources to grow the EuroPeers UK network. Also along the way, other organizations have offered advice, which has proven useful.

Abdul

Networking at the New Year's Reception of German-British Chamber of Industry and Commerce

"The EuroPeers UK started 2016 with new initiatives. Our member of the steering group, Ms Ilona Kuzak had a chance to attend the New Year's Reception in London at the German-British Chamber of Industry and Commerce on the 5th January 2016. It was an amazing opportunity to introduce the EuroPeers UK and the initiative of the Momentum World ICC to the Chamber and its members. (with the permission of the Director of the Chamber.)

Ilona discussed our organisation’s aims with many members who were interested in her providing some basis information and sharing the ideas on possible partnership with other organisations in the UK.

She promoted the potential of European mobility among young people from the UK, made the listeners to realise that they already contribute into supporting young people to gain valuable experience within European Union. She encouraged them to find ways how they could help the young generation to develop their employability skills via Erasmus Plus programs and to build a strong network with the EuroPeers UK.

Might the unforgettable impression of Ilona's networking in an entrepreneurial environment bring fresh ideas and new possibilities for the year ahead!"

Ilona Kuzak

How was the idea of EuroPeers UK created?

As it always happens it was due to a mixture of chance, human will and fruitful encounters.

Andrew Hadley has been CEO of Momentum World www.momentumworld.org for the last 6 years. Before that, he spent 20 years working for the British Council in different parts of the world including Ethiopia, China, Greece and Macedonia as well as some policy jobs in London. His interest in working with young people started in 2001 in Macedonia, where he set up several national and international youth projects and networks. It was the success of those projects and the impact on so many young people that made him decide to specialise in this field for the next part of his career.

Working in the UK with European programmes, Andrew noticed how young people are not getting enough opportunities to participate in international projects, courses or exchanges. He heard so many people around Europe ask “Why do we never meet any UK participants? Why don’t we see EVS volunteers from the UK? How can we find more opportunities to do EVS in the UK?”. Of course there are all kinds of reasons why British organisations don’t do more international work, such as policy priorities, financial capacity and staff expertise; but the hardest difficulty is simply getting the information out to young people, schools, and youth groups. Also his observation was that, just as in other countries, when young people come back from EVS or other projects, they feel greatly motivated and excited but there are very few opportunities for follow-up activities or networking.

For all these reasons, when he got to know the EuroPeers network and their activities he became immediately very interested. 

The first encounter took place when he attended the conference “Building Tomorrow’s Europe” in Bonn in May 2013. The event was organised by Jugend für Europa, and it included some workshops led by young people from the EuroPeers network. Andrew was truly impressed by the high motivation of the young people there, and the way the National Agency supported them to organise their activities.

What he particularly liked was that the EuroPeers network seemed to have solved some of the problems he had found in the past with youth networks, about keeping their members active and constantly developing the network. In his opinion 4 are the features that allowed the success of this initiative: (a) the network is genuinely youth-led; (b) there is continuous support and encouragement from the National Agency; (c) the network has a very clear purpose; (d) there are constantly new opportunities being offered to young people in this network at the national and international level.

Becoming a EuroPeer looked as a truly great way for young people who are back from international experiences to continue their journey, get some real responsibility, and start build up their CV. Andrew strongly believed that there are hundreds of young people around the UK who would jump at the chance to get involved in this. In his opinion, the UK really needs this kind of groups and decided it was time to look deeper into it and build it.

Setting up the EuroPeers network was a step-by-step process. After some preliminary discussions with the UK National Agency, and the assurance of their interest, the first concrete step was their support to allow Andrew and Thea Hanson-Orr (one of the most active young people Momentum World works with), to attend the EuroPeers meeting in Berlin in 2015. At this inspiring and insightful event, he met with people from all the countries EuroPeers is already a reality, and received support to make it happen in the UK as well.

Annamaria