University World News’ Post

Looking for some radical ideas from the Universities UK commissioners who have spent the last nine months working on a ‘blueprint’ to reset how universities can best serve the country over the next decade. Their report is due to be published before the governing The Labour Party holds its annual conference in #Liverpool from 22-25 September…. and it seems they have talked themselves out of recommending a #tuition #fees of £3,000 – up to over £12,500-a-year for domestic #students. #University bosses might be able to justify such a rise to themselves because of inflation since fees were last raised 7 years ago. But even the lead author on the fees question bit of the blueprint Shitji Kapur from King's College London realises that would make vice-chancellors look even more “out of touch” with public opinion – and probably Chancellor Rt Hon Rachel Reeves See my latest UK report for University World News which reminds anyone listening that new prime minister Sir Keir Starmer famously said he probably couldn’t afford university were he to apply today, before dropping his pledge to scrap tuition fees. I include several ideas on how to fix the #highered financial ‘black-hole’, which the Labour government might like to consider. They show there may be better (more politically acceptable) ideas floating around than just putting up the headline tuition fee! https://lnkd.in/eK6xv7s2 Johnny Rich Diana Beech Anna Zvagule Jim Dickinson Joanne Hindle Chris Millward Dave Amor Ruth Arnold Professor Helen Bailey Janet B. Ilieva David Pilsbury Eve Alcock George Abraham Paul Greatrix Adam Clarke Mary Curnock Cook CBE Bobby Duffy Jim Murphy Lisdey E. Eloise S. Dr Salim M Salim Rose Stephenson Jacqui Smith Iain Mansfield Steve O'Neil Graham Timmins Dan Smith Michael Salmon Brooke Storer-Church Kevin Daly Thom Brooks Thomas Ekman Jørgensen Mark Garratt FCIM Mark Hertlein

Might UK universities have more chance of seeing tuition fees rise to £12,000 to £13,000 if they campaigned for any increase to be shared with hard-up students in the form of maintenance grants for students struggling with rising debt and scholarships, or bursaries, for those training to be nurses and other NHS and essential worker! At the moment vice-chancellors can come across as tone-deaf when claiming they are making a loss teaching home students due to frozen tuition fees and then trying to pile domestic students as high as possible, often to the detriment of lower-ranked rivals. While we wait for UUK's Blueprint for the future to be published, let's hope it makes the case for a better deal for students (and staff) as well as sector leaders. Here's my blog on why £12,000 tuition fees might be justified, but vice chancellors will probably need to change their tune to convince the new Labour government. Simone Hackett Claire Bithell Andy Howells Cara Skikne George Abraham Rachel Hewitt Louise Nicol Andy Green FRSA https://lnkd.in/dRD75wBs

No government of any colour is going too come to the rescue of beleaguered UK #universities, in short they got themselves into this mess & no politician is going to bail them out at the tax payers expense. We should all question how we got here? With record numbers of #internationalstudents & the UK emerging from the #pandemic relatively unscathed, those working in #internationaleducation are right to ask sector bodies & lobbying organisations purporting to act in their interests: ‘What went wrong?’ Murphy is right when he says universities must make themselves more relevant & directly link their contribution to economic well-being above all else. In an election year it’s worth reiterating what James Carville said in 1992 as Clinton’s advisor - “It’s the economy stupid!” Linking universities directly with employment & productivity is the way out of this mess & would negate the need for government to step in, something akin to “hell freezing over” in the current fiscal reality! See our article - “Are student’s costs or assets?” in Wonkhe. “#British universities were told to “try their very best” to break out of the #highereducation “funding box” & stop simply moaning to politicians that they needed more money without offering any reforms in return. Both The Conservative Party government ministers & their political opponents were “sick of universities all coming to say the funding system is broken”, the Universities UK (#UUK) annual Political Affairs in higher education 2024 conference heard. The all-day event on 20 June couldn’t have been timed better, coming midway between political parties in the UK publishing their manifestos and the British general election on 4 July 2024. Opinion polls currently predict The Labour Party a victory of historic proportions. Jim Murphy, a former secretary of state for #Scotland in the last Labour government told universities to try their very best “to escape from just being in the #highered funding box” for the new government. “You need to be in seven or eight cabinet ministers’ inbox trays because the decision on the future funding of the sector will not be taken by the #education secretary. True, they will have an important voice in it, but not the decisive voice,” he said. It will be a cabinet collective decision as to how to respond to the funding crisis in higher education, which will need to be agreed across government departments, & not just the Treasury, but also by trade and industry, health & other ministries.” Asia Careers Group SDN BHD - Investing in International Futures AGCAS British Council BUILA Department for Business and Trade Department for Education Higher Education Policy Institute Institute of Student Employers HM Treasury UCAS UKCISA Universities Australia Universities Scotland Universities UK International Universities Wales

Latest from FE News: Scottish Government Criticised for Underfunding Higher Education as Budget Shows Deep Cuts: The IfS report on Higher Education funding in the Scottish Budget, released today, shows how the Scottish Government is undervaluing and underfunding the education system… Scottish Government Criticised for Underfunding Higher Education as Budget Shows Deep Cuts was published on FE News by National Union of Students (NUS) #Education #Socialimpact Read more here:

We feared as much! Whist the #highered sector may have expected a warmer reception from a Labour government, we are not sure that will in fact be the case. Warm words towards #internationalstudents are all well & good but they come from a reluctance to bail out a sector in need of international fee income “to keep the lights on.” Time to change the narative & focus not on #internationalgraduates remaining in the UK for #poststudywork, but by far the majority of graduates that return home to successful #careers, driving global economic growth & building #uk #softpower overseas. Subscribe to IEI - https://lnkd.in/e5c_CSE4 “The “false dawn” is a staple of Hollywood thrillers: where the main characters think they have escaped their nemesis, only to discover they are in more peril than ever. So it is for England’s #universities. Having slogged through years of frozen #tuition fees and lashings from The Conservative Party ministers about “bums on seats”, grade inflation & “low-value” #degrees, last month’s general election raised hopes that the worst was over. But the plot twist for #England’s VCs is that there is still another mountain to climb. According to one #academic, the most likely outcome of the crisis will not be “a mushroom cloud in the sky” but rather a “soft bankruptcy” of increasing #redundancies, #course closures & larger classes. Building maintenance, mental health support & sports facilities could also be targeted for cuts. “You’ve got to think of it as being like a sinking hot air balloon, with senior management chucking everything out just to stay up in the air.” Mark Corver, dataHE, warns that universities face a longer-term danger if their cuts deter #future #students. He points to the consecutive annual declines in the proportion of English #schoolleavers going to #university as evidence of lower enthusiasm among sixth formers. Owing to a mismatch between political & academic timetables, the change of government has not brought any immediate relief when universities reopen this autumn. Labour’s manifesto promised to put #highereducation in England on a “secure financial footing” but that will have to wait until at least the next budget. That may be too long for some, with hints that three or four universities face urgent financial difficulties this autumn. Those most in danger used the low interest rates that came with the period of low inflation of the 2010s to borrow heavily from pension funds & investment banks. Several are now struggling with high debt servicing, and are in danger of breaching the covenants governing those loans, as their main sources of income shrink and their costs rise.” Asia Careers Group SDN BHD - Investing in International Futures AGCAS British Council BUILA Department for Business and Trade Department for Education Higher Education Policy Institute Jisc Office for Students UCAS UKCISA Universities Scotland Universities UK Universities UK International Universities Wales

Everybody is waiting for the new UK government to come in and fix the UK higher education sector. This is going to be a monumental task, given that no serious change has been attempted in the last 15 years.  It looks like they are three basic strategies available, all of them with severe problems: 1) Find money to prop up a sector in dire need of funding. This money will then either be lacking elsewhere (NHS, infrastructure, pensions, schools, etc) or will come via increased taxes. Voters will not be happy. 2) Increase student fees or fee interest rates. This will not go down well with younger voters. 3) Keep universities declining. Then some will go bankrupt. This will look terrible, and the government will be accused of inaction. Voters will not be happy.

✉️ More than 170 college leaders have written a joint letter to the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to urge proper consideration of the challenges facing further education in the upcoming October budget, reports Billy Camden in FE Week. 🏫 The signatories, who include Capital City College Group, LTE Group and NCG, use the letter to call on the Chancellor to set her sights on three key areas: addressing the lecturer recruitment and retention crisis, fully funding the growing numbers of young people in colleges, and offering colleges the VAT reimbursement that schools benefit from. ⛔ The current lecturer recruitment and retention crisis, the letter says, "directly hampers the supply of new workers in key skills shortage sectors, including construction, engineering and health and social care, and stifles economic growth. Failing to do so, it argues, will make it "unlikely that the government will be able to fully deliver a number of manifesto commitments, including the 1.5 million new homes, the transition to net zero, a reformed NHS and the productivity gains needed to secure strong economic growth. " 📈 Addressing all three issues, it concludes, "will help us to deliver the government’s missions and equip young people and adults with the skills they need to succeed." #furthereducation #budget #colleges #skills https://lnkd.in/e2aiSrzt

How many people should go to university? UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says that the previous Labour’s government’s famous 50 per cent participation target, under Tony Blair, was “one of the great mistakes of the last 30 years”, a “false dream”, leading to “thousands of young people being ripped off”. Meanwhile in Australia, a major review has just set a target of 80 per cent of working-age people holding tertiary qualifications by 2050, up from 60 per cent today. A separate target would see 55 per cent of Australians aged between 25 and 34 possessing university qualifications, up from the current 45 per cent. In India, Narendra Modi’s National Education Policy sets out to double higher education enrolment, including vocational training, from 26 per cent in 2018 to 50 per cent by 2035. And as Nicholas Hillman of the Higher Education Policy Institute wrote recently: “Those who think too many people go to university must say exactly who they want to shut out. You can bet your bottom dollar it won’t be their own children.” Read John Gill on the issues here: https://lnkd.in/ewg4u_N8 What do you think?

A loaded question that could be interpreted in many ways and debated. The meaning of 'Education' certainly has shifted to something which is worthy of a new definition! #highereducation #universityeducation #vocationaleducation #workforcedevelopment #economicimpact #socialimpact #capacitybuilding

This description of Labour’s being “..clear in identifying the higher education funding crisis as such, but far less clear about potential solutions is a reminder of an old joke. Police have confirmed reports of a deep hole in the middle of the M1. They are looking into it.” Interesting to see Mandelson’s gentle nudge about universities managing their finances. It looks a relatively simple matter now for Labour to give fees a one-off, modest bump up - £250/500 - then tell the sector any more is contingent upon efficiency gains and responses to Government “requests” on enhancing the economy’s growth. The sector gets lured into having to welcome the increase (however marginal) and then apply itself to cutting costs and doing the Government’s bidding. Too cynical? #ukuniversities #highereducation #policy #ukgovernment #educationpolicy