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.”

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.

I worked on the video side of the website on Thursday, and was sent out to get some GVs and vox-pops on the idea of making the River Medway and ‘aqua motorway’. Getting the GVs was the easy part, persuading the residents of Chatham and Rochester to speak to me was an entirely different matter. I really do think the camera puts them off. I always find it’s much easier with a notebook or Ediroll.

After a fruitless couple of hours it was back to base where I was handed a second feature to work on: the 15th anniversary of the Channel Tunnel.

I spent the bulk of Friday working on this. In the morning I headed down to the office of Paul Clark, Labour MP for Gillingham and Rainham to do an interview which went well.

Then me and Laura were sent to the Isle of Sheppey to cover the celebrations to mark 100 years of aviation in the Royal Navy. When we eventually got there we shot the service, the fly past and then got some interviews with people there.

Back to the newsroom we went, where I then recorded a telephone interview with a spokesman for Eurotunnel for my feature.

That was about it for my first week. I’ve had audio, video and text content published on the website, been sent across Kent on various different jobs, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope the second week is the same.

The first was an idea I pitched to my editor – new designs for hospital furniture that aimed to stop outbreaks of superbugs. A topic with some importance in Kent due to the C.diff outbreak at Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells hospital which killed 90 people.

However this was quickly cast aside as no solid Kent link could be established: none of the hospitals which would be trying out the new furniture were in Kent. Although the hospital I was born in – Lewisham – would get to try them out.

The second story concerned declining beer sales. Jonathan Neame, from local brewer Shepherd Neame was unavailable, and so were a number of managers in pubs across the county.

Then news broke that there had been an explosion at a house in Kemsley, near Sittingbourne. I was put on standby to go down there. Then the call came and I was sent  to get footage of the house and speak to whoever I could. After managing to find my way down there I set my camera up and got a few minutes worth of footage.

But amidst all of the chaos I was accused of moving a rather large cameraman’s tripod. Then I got an interview with the Incident Commander from the firefighters dealing with the blaze. Once that was all done it was back to base. The footage was cut and included in the site’s video bulletin, and the original article on the fire.

I spent the bulk of Wednesday working on the Gurkhas story. In the morning I got an interview with Jeff Brazier, Conservative MP for Canterbury. Then, at around 5pm, the news broke that the government had lost the vote on their plans for Gurkhas wanting to settle here in the UK. In a very welcome stroke of luck, Hugh Robertson MP, who I had tried to interview earlier – got back to me and I was able to get his reaction to the vote within minutes of the news breaking.

Tomorrow I’ll be working solely on video, and then on Friday it’s back to the website. And then a long weekend which I think I very much need.

In the morning I was tasked with covering a fire at a garden centre in Sidcup. I managed to get an audio interview with one of the people at the centre and also wrote an article on the blaze, which contains a snippet of the audio interview.

Then I was put on the story about animal owners abandoning their pets in increasing numbers due to the recession. I set up a video interview down at the RSPCA centre in Leybourne, West Malling.  However my interviewee was busy (with no less than the BBC) and tied up for the rest of the afternoon so that fell through. I did manage to get some stock footage of some dogs in their kennels which can be used by the site at a later date though.

By that point I was absolutely soaking so it was back into my car (and its blissful blast of warm air) and then back to base to do some research on potential stories to follow up.

All in all a good day, and I look forward to what tomorrow has in store for me.

Everyone else from the CfJ who has just finished their placements (and are no doubt glad to now have a hard-earned two week break) seemed to enjoy it and get some bylines from it, including a front-page story.

So no pressure there then!

From speaking to Nick (who has just finished his placement there) it seems I will be worked very hard, but should get some bylines to add to my portfolio, which is still in its formative stages.

The only thing is, I’ll have to spend two weeks at Peak House (to avoid paying an insane amount in petrol), my (very) humble student abode. But then again no one ever said journalism was easy!

No doubt I’ll be blogging throughout my placement, Peak House internet connection permitting.