This is a story I wrote for Kent Online. You can listen to vox-pops – conducted and edited by my colleague James Woodcock – here.

“Ridiculous!”

That’s how one Kent student describes the review, released today by Lord Browne, outlining the biggest reforms of higher education in half a century.

The controversial review recommends removing the limit on tuition fees, currently capped at £3,290 a year.

The government would underwrite fees up to £6,000, paving the way for them to double.

But to soften the blow students would only begin to pay back their loans once they started earning more than £21,000 a year, instead of the existing threshold of £15,000.

On the University of Kent’s Medway campus, opinions on the potential rise were divided.

Joe Clemence, 21, said it would not put him off: “If it was £6,000 I’d still apply – it’s an investment in the future.

“It’s good debt instead of bad debt, that’s the way I look at it.”

However, 21-year-old Leanne Holt thinks it is “ridiculous”.

“It would certainly make me think twice about going,” she said.

Patrick Nganzi, 19, studies accounting and finance. He said tuition fees were high enough already.

He said: “Raising them would put a lot of people off. I know a lot of people who didn’t go because they thought fees at the moment were too high.”

Nathan Reynolds, an 18-year-old IT student, said: “It’s preposterous that they can raise the fees. I think middle class and lower class students won’t be able to apply for university in that case. It will be families that have a wealthier background.”

Lauren Crowley, vice president of education at Kent University’s student union, said students would definitely be deterred from going to university.

She said: “Students may be forced to go to university that’s lower down on the league tables because that’s all they can afford rather than what their ability dictates.

“I think Lord Browne has failed to actually talk to students and put the personal aspect into the review.”

If I needed any further indication that the summer is coming to an end, the pitter patter of rainfall on my bedroom window provided it.

After near enough three months off my thoughts are starting to turn back towards Medway and the University of Kent.

The bulk of my time off has been taken up by two things: football and work experience. For the first month of my holiday I watched the majority of what was a disappointing World Cup.

The day after the final I started a two-week placement with the Medway Messenger – which is based in the same office as Kent Online.

To say I did a bit of everything would be an understatement. I wrote about everything from teddy bears picnics and footpath closures to snake bites and court cases.

It was an enjoyable and fulfilling fortnight of bread and butter reporting that I have taken a great deal from.

For the majority of this month I was back at Sky News Online. After familiarising myself with the CMS again I was thrown into the fray, being given stories to cover and picture galleries to compile.

Over the three weeks I wrote stories on the floods in Pakistan, mudslides in China, the heightened tensions between North and South Korea, the collapse of the tour operator Sun4U and much more besides.

The piece I was most pleased with, however, was a warning from the victims of the ‘Amazon’s Chernobyl’ to those affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that they should be prepared to wait years, even decades, for compensation.

I pitched, sourced and compiled all of the elements to the story, and it was published on my last day there.

At the end of the placement I was throughly knackered, and since then I have been reacquainting myself with a long lost friend called sleep.

Once Freshers Week is over I think we’ll begin to grow apart again!

Before I started university I remember saying to a friend in the pub one night that it would most probably fly by. That’s exactly what has happened.

Last week I finished my second year studying journalism at the University of Kent.

This time next year I’ll be entering the big wide media world, looking for a job and aiming to ascend to the top of the greasy pole.

It’s a scary, but at the same time enticing, prospect.

For now I can enjoy a little bit of down time (and of course the World Cup), after what was a typically hectic end of term.

The highlight was my two weeks at the Independent.

Admittedly it was a little intimidating walking into a national newsroom for the first time. However, I settled in well and really enjoyed it. On my first day I was sent out to Watford to do some election vox popping and managed to get my name in the paper. Before the week was out I managed to get a few sidebars published.

At the end of the week, after being sent out to do another vox pop for the Independent on Sunday, I was invited to spend my final week there.

While a few of my ideas and articles fell by the wayside, the main story I was given to work on came off. I was tasked with finding Julie Andrews fans and their ‘favourite things’ related to the singer, ahead of her concert at the O2 Arena.

After an initially fruitless search I managed to find, with the help of Andrew Johnson – another reporter on the paper – a dozen or so and got quotes and pictures. The article appeared on pages 12 and 13 and I was absolutely ecstatic.

I was also lucky enough to be picked to work as a stringer on election night for Sky News. I was based down in Medway on the night, covering Gillingham and Rainham, where the incumbent MP Paul Clark had a majority of just 15.

Thanks to a few cans of Relentless, a keen ear and some nimble fingers, I was able to get the result back to Sky News HQ before any of the other media organisations reported it.

Away from the newsroom the football season came to its conclusion, and what a season it was for Chelsea.

Carlo Ancelotti and his players recovered from yet more Champions League heartbreak – this time against Inter Milan – to win the club’s first ever league and cup double – the most successful season in the club’s history.

Along the way I witnessed – and wrote about – some quite sensational games of football – the 2-1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford, the 7-0 victory at home to Stoke, and of course the game that wrapped up the title – Chelsea 8-0 Wigan.

You can read my thoughts on what was an historic season here.

Now it’s time for some rest and relaxation – with some work experience sandwiched in between – before I return to Kent for my last year at uni.

Regular Southeastern services have suffered delays since the launch of High Speed 1

Furious Kent commuters have demanded the new high speed timetable is scrapped.

With some journeys now taking up to three hours, people have had enough.

1,500 people have signed a petition calling for the new timetable, which came in with High Speed 1 in December, to be abolished.

Southeastern have made a frank admission that services from Kent into London are not up to scratch.

“We hold our hands up that things haven’t been great in the past few months. We’re trying to improve that.” John Hay-Campbell, a spokesman for the company, said.

High Speed 1 allows users to travel from Ashford to London St Pancras in under 40 minutes. But there have been complaints that other lines, such as the service from Chatham to Cannon Street, have suffered as a result of the new service being given priority.

They give priority to the High Speed, they go through regardless of everything else, which suffers

Roger Gale, the MP for Thanet North, tabled an adjournment debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday and laid into the new route.

“Instead of the fast train to central London that commuters should be able to enjoy, we have been asked to applaud a train that runs fast – sometimes – from Ashford to St. Pancras at considerably increased cost, of little benefit to travellers using the Kent coastal services and at very severe detriment to the conventional routes to Victoria, Cannon Street and London Bridge that most commuters wish to use.”

At Chatham station one Friday morning it was not hard to find evidence that there is room for improvement.

Every single high speed train arrived on time, and there were plenty of seats. By contrast the trains taking commuters to London Victoria and Cannon Street were late – one left passengers waiting an extra 10 minutes before finally showing up – and there was standing room only.

Anne Cakebread makes sure she catches an early train to allow for the delays. “They give priority to the High Speed, they go through regardless of everything else, which suffers,” she said.

“They’re not too bad, but if they go wrong, they go wrong big time. Five or ten minutes would be the most that they are late which is not too bad.”

One passenger, who preferred not to be named, said a five minute delay in catching his train was ‘normal’.

For Richard Wym the problem is not punctuality, but the chronic lack of seating. He said: “It’s not that bad for time but the problem is seating. I’m thinking about getting that [high speed rail] in the future because of the seating, the comfort, the speed.”

The pier is to be given a new lease of life...

Gravesend Town Pier reopens today with a brand new bar and restaurant.

Ahead of the opening I spoke to Murali Shanmugam, a director at the new owners, Culinary Solutions, and also Simon Greenway from the local council.

You can watch my video piece on the Kent Online website.

It actually went very quickly and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I produced video and audio content as well as getting a number of bylines on the website. I also managed to get one of my pieces into the Medway Messenger yesterday. There’s just something about seeing your byline in a newspaper that can’t compare to seeing it on a computer screen.

Yesterday I spent the day with radio, doing interviews, cutting audio and writing cues for the news on KMFM. It was a change of pace from working on the website, and gave me some good experience.

But now it’s back to student life and end of year exams. Yay.

This week I’ve been notching up some more bylines and also got a video package put up on the site. Here’s what I’ve been getting up to over the past few days.

Tuesday: I put the finishing touches to my Channel Tunnel feature, which includes a video interview with Paul Clark, MP for Gillingham and Rainham, and John Keefe, a spokesman for Eurotunnel.

After that was done and dusted I was sent with another reporter to a house in Gravesend which police were searching in connection with the disappearance of a man 16-years ago. I got some GVs of the house and an interview with the head of Kent Police’s Cold Case team. I then cut the footage, recorded a voiceover and made a package which can be viewed here.

Wednesday: Following on from a piece in the Medway Messenger last week, I interviewed Simon Green of the Groundwork charity about his idea of making the River Medway a transport hub. I also talked to the head of Medway Council, Councillor Rodney Chambers about the plans. You can read the article and listen to an interview with Cllr Chambers by clicking here.

The second story I covered was about 200Mb broadband being tested in Ashford.

Thursday: Today I picked up a further two bylines. The first was an article on a woman from Sevenoaks who was given a makeover as part of a TV show. The second was on a number of beaches in Kent being awarded ‘Blue Flags’ for international standard beaches.