Critics can sometimes be stilled by the threat of a lost contract, or the offer of a well-paid job.

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Should students pay through a tax which the government would collect from graduates, and use to fund universities or through loans which students would repay if they get a reasonably well-paid job?

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Once Hwang is deemed to be a true defector and not a plant, he may even get a well-paid job as a senior adviser to the government, like he was in Pyongyang.

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This points towards fees combined with an expanded loans system, or a graduate tax, whereby students would take out a loan and repay it if and when they got a reasonably well-paid job.

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Running a well-paid job to sustain a middle-class life incurred pressures that never eased: you needed a bigger house, a better car, private schools for your growing children and shop accounts for your wife so that she looked good when business clients had to be entertained at your home.

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Yet, from looking at the students enrolled today, many are from outside the region (mainly, SE Europe) local nationals are more likely to go overseas for an education, or to take a ministry, banking, or other safe, well-paid job fed by energy wealth vs. starting a high risk new business.

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"In this highly-competitive graduate jobs market, new graduates who've not had any work experience during their time at university have little or no chance of landing a well-paid job with a leading employer, irrespective of the university they've attended or the academic results they achieve, " said Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research.

BBC: Work experience 'key to job hunt' for graduates

The second case before the Lords concerned Kenneth and Julia McFarlane he a senior tax partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, she a well-paid solicitor before she gave up her job to look after their three children.

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Many job seekers aspire to get well-paid work doing what they love.

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Why did George Shaheen, the well-paid head of Andersen Consulting, quit to take a job running a new on-line business?

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She gave up the well paid "boring" job in her hometown of Berkeley, California, for a full-time job with The Idea Village.

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