Fast Tube by Casper

Every time we think the great tuition fees debate has run out of steam, a new issue springs up. And the latest might just be the most important of all: confusion. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Wednesday, several thousand students marched through London in protest against tuition fee rises and what many of them see as the “privatisation” of UK universities. By now, we’re used to seeing students out on the streets. Indeed, we’ve blogged about protests before, and we’ve commented a lot on the rising ill feeling towards tuition fee rises. But the latest march had a different – and some would say tenser – character. Read the rest of this entry »

A recent report from Ucas brought one of the classic episodes of the cult comedy series The Young Ones to mind. In it, the show’s four main characters – Vyvian, Neil, Rick and Mike – represent Scumbag College in University Challenge. Their opponents are four ludicrously posh kids representing Footlights College, Oxbridge. In no time at all, Footlights leap into the lead – not because they’re brighter, but because they cheat and bribe. The only way to get even, it seems, is for Scumbag to resort to slapstick violence and anarchy. Read the rest of this entry »

In the past few months, we’ve been blogging a lot about the potential impact of tuition fee increases. We’ve discussed their possible effects on social mobility, the quality of university research, and of course on student accommodation. But because the increases aren’t coming in until next year, much of this has been speculation. Now though, some early numbers are giving us a clearer picture of how fee rises are likely to transform higher education in this country. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest report from the Office for Fair Access (Offa) has provoked mixed reactions. The way you interpret its findings will probably depend on whether you’re a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty kind of person. Read the rest of this entry »

The dance over tuition fees between the government, universities and students continues.

In the latest move, the government has issued a white paper stating that universities can bid for an extra 20,000 student places a year – but only if they drop their fees below £7,500. This is in response to the fact that so many institutions have taken up the opportunity to raise fees to the new £9,000 maximum. Initially, the criteria for doing this seemed pretty strict, with a particular emphasis on making sure students from poorer backgrounds would still have access to higher education. As a result, it was expected that only a handful of unis would go up to £9,000. But in fact, more than a third of them have. In a tough economic environment, and with youth unemployment at record levels, this is making plenty of prospective students think twice about undertaking such a big financial commitment. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, it was announced that UK universities would have to publish sets of directly comparable data. This includes things like teaching hours for each course, accommodation costs, post-degree employment rates, and the future salaries of graduates. The idea behind this “compare the market” model is that it will give prospective students some solid facts about the institutions they’re interested in. Well, more solid than a fancy prospectus and an open day when everyone’s on their best behaviour, anyway. Read the rest of this entry »

In a new survey of vice-chancellors, PA Consulting Group found that at least two UK universities are considering going private. The news comes hot on the heels of the announcement that AC Grayling and other leading academics will establish an £18,000 per year private college in central London. On the face of it, privatisation may seem fairly innocuous. But in fact, it’ a massive change for the UK’s higher education sector. Read the rest of this entry »

Lately, a fierce debate has raged about AC Grayling’s proposed New College of the Humanities: a college in the heart of London that will charge its students £18,000 per year. For that, they’ll be taught by some of the world’s academic superstars – including Grayling himself, Richard Dawkins, Niall Ferguson and David Cannadine. For a while now, we’ve been blogging that fee increases could push UK universities towards an American-style funding model. Grayling’s “university” has forced the issue even sooner than we thought. Because although it’s being described in some quarters as “Oxbridge on Thames”, it actually has far more in common with America’s private liberal arts colleges: institutions that attract students through famous teachers and luxurious surroundings. Read the rest of this entry »