Dream of being a vet has £94,000 price tag
Thursday 15th April 2010, 9:24AM BST.
Jenna Morris has to find £94,500 to pay veterinary tuition fees
A life-long dream of becoming a veterinary surgeon could be in tatters for a Shropshire animal lover who is facing massive student fees of almost £100,000 in order to fulfil her ambition.
Jenna Morris, 24 of Ellesmere, has received a much sought after place at the Liverpool School of Veterinary Science – but it comes with a £94,500 price tag.
While many students up and down the country struggle to meet annual fees of just over £3,000, Jenna is being faced with a bill of £18,900 annually over five years as it will be her second degree.
She said: “Since the start, my career has been orientated around the health and welfare of animals. I have a natural passion in this area and at the age of 24 my dream since childhood has been to graduate as a veterinary surgeon.
“I have received an unconditional offer from Liverpool for a place on the Bachelor of Veterinary Science degree course starting in September 2010.”
But she added: “As I will be studying for a second BSc degree I will be a full fee paying student. It’s a bit of a grey area. There is no Government funding for a second degree. They don’t subsidise courses at all so you have to find it yourself.”
Jenna said she is so passionate about pursing the career she has longed for that she is now appealing for help to meet the costs.
“This is a career that I want to pursue more than anything. There is no other career that I would be as truly passionate about or would provide me with the same level of fulfilment.
“It’s an opportunity I can’t let up on. I just can’t believe how much money we are talking about.”
As a school leaver Jenna embarked on a veterinary nursing and practice management degree.
But she has worked her way up through the ranks and even went back to college full-time after completing her first degree to gain the three A levels needed to meet the veterinary school entry requirements.
She added: “Family and friends are offering to provide what support they can, however the deficit is proving hard to find. Banks are unwilling to lend.”
Jenna is appealing for anyone who can help to contact her on (01691) 623916, 07886 292074.
By Suzanne Roberts
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Yes very sad however a very big fact of life if you cant afford you cant have it, and the same goes for your dream job if you cant afford the training you cant do it .
Very wrong but we have to face facts, the other evening i watched a programme where a person had qualified to be a barrister she then had to go on to a type of probation period with a barristers and their were 350 people chaseing the 1 place and the unspoken priority was given to those from the right private educated background with the right daddy. So in that industry as with many in the UK today you have to fight the class system . However saying all this if you want it bad enough you make it happen one way or other.
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Bit bloody cheeky asking for donations !
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shocking, this young lady wishes to pursue her career and work so hard to get there, all that dedication to then be hit with learing fee’s of that amount. If you didn’t work, you would be able to do this degree for free, no incentive to hard working people of this day and age – it’s disgusting, i wish you the best of luck Jenna xxx
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Lets hope she qualifies as a vet and YOU geeeceee arent the one taking YOUR pet to see her (if you have one).Maybe you would think again about the comment you made !!!
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Should not matter that its your second degree you should get some funding from government ! Trying to better yourself should not come down to whether you can afford it !! Typical of this country. Good luck Jenna xx
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A high cost, but then she’s already had the luxury of doing one degree. There are many who don’t get the opportunity to do that.
I can’t recall ever meeting a poor vet, so provided she’s successful in her degree course, she’ll win in the end.
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I don’t see what’s wrong with her asking for donations – I hope she gets help with financing her dream. Why not? I’d love to have trained to be a vet but it was the fees involved to train as a mature student that stopped me.
Good luck to you, Jenna.
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I do not think it is handouts that Jenna is after. i think people in medical/ legal professions should be applicable ofr a government student loan, but neither goverment nor banks presently do this. These are the sorts of people/ professions who could pay off their debts quite easily if only they were allowed to live the dream. Good luck Jenna!
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Too many people are stopped from following there dream because of money !!! its stupid the classes etc are running anyway so why are the fees so high for her?? If everyone gave up easily without trying eventually certain professions would run out of qualified people !!! absolutely ridiculous !!! Cant believe help is not available from anywhere !!
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Hie Jenna,
You know what they say,
Try and try again boys you will get it at last.
Cheers
Bobby.
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Keep Trying Jenna and success will come your way.
Lots of good luck
Elizabeth
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Success is just around the corner Jenna
Good luck and dreams do come true.
Elizabeth
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Good to be ambitious Jenna good luck and dreams do come true.
Elizabeth.
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Good luck Jenna keep trying success will come your way….Elizabeth
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Firstly, good luck Jenna, we should be supporting people willing to get out there and make the effort to help others, people or animals.
Do we not need vets ???? so much for the ‘nation of animal lovers !!’
I would however be intrigued to find out how any Uni course could incur fees of almost £19,000 per student, per annum !!!!!
On a class size of 20 students thats not far off £400,000 per year per course ……. if the Uni’s are raking anywhere close to that in, why is the taxpayer neding to fund these institutions in the first place ????
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she’ll earn that in the first year!
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I don’t know about how they work out the costs, but as far as I know it’s a full year each year, rather than the shorter terms that other uni students have. I don’t know whether that makes much difference in cost.
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I left uni with 4 yrs and a bill of £19K in student loans, each month £150 comes out of my salary in re-payments. Get over it.
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I would like to clarify some of the areas in this article that readers may have misunderstood.
As I am hoping to undertake a course at an equivalent level qualification to that already held there is no government funding available. I am only entitled to a £4,000 per annum maintenance loan from the Student Loans Company. This is despite having paid back my previous student loan. Banks are also unwilling to lend. I am however hoping to be successful in my application for a Professional Trainee Loan from a well known bank. I have applied for the maximum loan available from this scheme, £20,000, which is enough to cover only one year’s tuition and is not available until my second year of study.
Following graduation I am more than prepared to pay off further loans or work alongside or within a company that are kind enough to offer sponsorship. I am however struggling to find the finances required to achieve my dream. I plan to work as a locum Veterinary Nurse both before the course commences in September and throughout my studies to support myself as much as possible.
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If you get the donations will you pay them back when you qualify I doubt it tou will just go on ripping off animal lovers just like the Vet that charged me £75 call out fee and was only ere 8mins
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Hi Jenna,
As a student who works full time as well you have my sympathy. £94000 is getting towards house price magnitude, so lending is going to be pretty much a no no. With the economy the way it is as well lots of businesses are struggling and many people I know are not getting funding even for basic training costing few hundred odd quid.
However if it was me I’d set up an account with an online merchant (e.g. Paypa… or Noche…) and kindly ask any of the readers who felt for your cause to just donate a few pounds via your email address. Ask the star to run story again.
With an average readership of over 220000 adults lets assume just 5% sympathised enough and have funds available to send you £2, that’d be £22000 in the bank towards your fees. Post it on social networking sites as well!
Good luck
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Hey, I know exactly how you feel, I’m looking to start my veterinary degree at liverpool this september as a second degree. The fees are absolutely ridiculous and Im in the same boat really. Fingers crossed we’ll both find the money, then I might see you in September!
Jack
ps ad newly qualified vets and large animal vets don’t earn as much as you think!
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I could do with some donations please, i have a house to run, car to run and im jobless. any donations gratefuly recieved. Vets earn ruffly £100 a hour and the goverment give me 50 quid a week to live on, yea thats very fair isnt it
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To Ben
Think about what you are saying – the government are giving you £50 to do nothing, this girl is looking for a loan to repay probably with interest. Unlike those who may well be very unfortunate not to have a job, she is not asking for a handout (which you do not have to repay). You stink of jealousy. i sympathise with your situation, as i know lots who have been made redundant, but you should not begrudge someone who is clever from having the opportunity to fulfil her talent. If she makes a go of it and ends up being a vet she will earn £30k plus. between 20% and 40% in tax which will be partly used by the government to pay for those who are out of work. People should not be so short-sighted! Jenna, i wish you every success.
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Well said Will !!! Without the taxpayers people like Ben would not get their handouts !! We all have bills and would like more money but without genuine people willing to study to get these qualifications where would we be when we need a vet or doctor !! these fees are ridiculous, y is our government limiting these peoples potential and paying other people to do nothing and sit on social for years ???? Unbelievable !!!! Set up a donation page !
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Hi Jenna, I’m starting my vet course in liverpool in september too, it will also be my second degree. I am frantically looking for grants too, as well as assignment writing, studying for my finals and working part-time. I’m approaching local farmers with expanding an business for sponsorship and also the directorate of grants has a website of lots of grants. It seems so unfair after all the time and effort that I have put into getting onto this amazing course there is yet another huge hurdle ahead.
Ah well it will help seperate the wheat from the chaff and the people that really would give anything to be a vet will find the funding from somewhere. I have done a buget planner: and which accomodation costs set at £80 per week, food at £15 per week and books and equiptment at £40 per month (which includes fuel for placement) it will cost £26,000 per year ( tuition fees at £18,900). I hope I find a sponsor, hopefully if a farmer agrees to sponsor me I will be able to work there on my extra mutual studies and work with them when I graduate- as I don’t feel I could take money from anyone without repaying them for their kindness. Good luck, see you in september xxxx
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When both my sister and brother did medicene in 1968 and 1970 respectively they lived on very little for the next five to six years as with two more of us, my parents could not help out much.
My sister just about managed to run a car but my brother did not learn to drive until he was 23.
They did leave at the end with no debts however but had to then do a gruelling year as house officers working very, very long hours.
Interestingly, at that time only 8% of medical students were women it is now 60% and 80% women in veterinary medicene.
When my son thought about medicene as a subject the teachers at our local comprehensive school almost laughed. My son is easily bright enough but suffered badly with bullying and my daughter stopped going at all for the same reason.
My son has a debt from uni but no job at present. I feel we should be investing in our young people but no party will re-create the opportunities we had 30 years ago.
Teaching or nursing offered more support then with accommodation but now our young people are thrown to the wolves (market forces) and universities are making money out of our youth.
I don’t know what the answer is Jenna though we seem to have a surfit of veterinary surgeons.
My nephew has just qualified in Podiatry and has no prospect of work to pay off his debt.
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Hi Jenna,
first of all well-done you for being offered a place for such a competative course and also for being creative and brave enough to share your story in this way. Of course, you have opened yourself up to the opportunity for criticism as much as you have for support from the public and for this I also think you should be commended.
I have just completed my Doctorate for which I received no funding so I understand how hard it is to chase your dream. It involves being creative with opportunities for generating income, a whole lot of determination and yes, at times relying on the good will of family and friends for which I know I will personally always be grateful.
Following a wealth of debt and tears I was recently successful in securing the kind of job for which I started my Doctorate in the first place and if it helps…..yes it was all worth it!
The very best of luck Jenna, keep chasing the dream and if you do set up an online donation I know that I for one would be pleased to support you : )
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Jenna – it was good to note your clarification
well done and keep persuing that dream.
Elizabeth.
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To Jack B and Emma Owen
Thank you both for your replies. Would you like to keep in touch over the summer?
Jen
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Hey Jen and Emma,
Yeh it would be good to keep in touch over summer, see how we’re all getting on in our quests for the finance. You can search me out on facebook if you want. There’s only 2 Jack Balkhams and I’m the one doing a flying kick. I had a quick scan for you both on facebook but a little more tricky with your names.
Jack
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