Some students at the University of Leeds have been offered £10,000 in cash and a year’s free accommodation to defer their place for a year.
The offer has been made by the university to students wanting to study business and law in the city.
This year’s A-level results saw an unprecedented number of high grades, which has led to an overwhelming number of students meeting the terms of their conditional offers.
However, the university doesn’t have room for them all – so it’s offering incoming business and law undergrads a sizeable cash sum to put their university attendance back a year.
The university has also stressed that it will secure the place of any students that do not want to take up the offer.
Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Jimack said that the offer was being made to “help ensure the highest quality of education and experience at the schools of business and law,” ITV reports.
Unsurprisingly, quite a few University of Leeds alumni have been having their say on Twitter since the announcement was made and there are some interesting ideas floating around as to how they would have used the money if given the opportunity at the time.
Some have commented that they feel such amounts of money would be better suited to a hardship fund, as opposed to being given out to students in cash, whilst others are being very supportive of the offer – acknowledging that it is a “prettty great deal given the astronomic cost of uni”
Twitter user @frankkilopezzz said “Sounds like a great deal. I’d defer and use the 10k to see the world”
Whilst @aakhtr said: “This is what happens when education is based wholly on market values, greed and profit. Thatcherism. It makes a perverted sense for Leeds University to do this as they, still make a profit on student fees long term. Ethics & student welfare don’t matter.”
And Twitter user @adiranbethune said: “If this was me, I’d consider myself blessed by the Gods, take the £10k and put it all on black in the casino because clearly I cannot lose!!!! I’d then invest my winnings in a student flat in Leeds and live rent free until I graduate. The end.”
