BU Research Blog

Monday

The sustainability of the current HE funding system is being questioned once again and has been hot news this weekend. On Friday Nick Hillman (previously Willett’s SPAD) called for a rethink of the student loans system and admitted the government got its maths wrong by overestimating the amount of graduate debt that will be repaid. David Willetts told Channel 4 news that the structure for “£9,000 and £21,000 (was) working,” however Cathy Newman tweeted that she asked Willetts the question again about the possibility of higher fees after 2015 as he was leaving the studio and the minister replied “could be”.

• Universities minister refuses to rule out increase in tuition fees (Guardian)
• Unpaid student loans ‘a fiscal time bomb for universities’ (Guardian)
• Government got maths wrong over tuition fees – adviser (Guardian)  
• ‘Catastrophic’ cost of student loans (Telegraph)
• Student loans cost taxpayers £6.6bn (Independent)
• Student loans face timebomb, says Labour (BBC)
• Explained: how is it possible to triple tuition fees and raise no extra cash? (Guardian)
• ‘Massive’ budget hole predicted as RAB charge rises (THE)
• Leader: Teetering on the brink (Guardian)

Social mobility

According to information published by the Department for Education, just 0.1 per cent of year 11 pupils who claimed free school meals who then took A levels or level 3 qualifications progressed to the universities of Oxford or Cambridge in 2010-11. Oxbridge access: DfE releases free school meal stats (THE)  

Skills

The Government is “letting down a generation” of children by failing to equip them with the skills needed to secure a good job, a former Conservative education secretary has warned. In a strongly worded intervention, Lord Baker insisted that every level of the education system was “dysfunctional” and struggled to meet the needs of modern business. Generation of children left without vital skills (Sunday Telegraph)

Scottish referendum

Universities have called on the Scottish Government to provide “legally-defensible certainty” that institutions will be able to deal with an influx of English students following independence. In a submission to the Scottish Parliament’s education committee, Universities Scotland said a yes vote would “inevitably” lead to more students heading north of the border in search of free tuition. Scottish independence: University influx fears (Scotsman)

University reform

Universities must recognise they cannot continue to operate using their current business model argues Vasant Dhar. Universities unbundled (FT)

Tuesday

The sector continues to respond to reports that the RAB nears ‘break-even point’. The letters page of the Guardian feature some interesting comments, Letters – If education is for life, perhaps repaying tuition fees could be, too, while, Andy Westwood (CEO of GuildHE) takes a look at the uproar and questions what will happen next. RAB and the wizardry of student finance (Wonkhe)

Scottish referendum

A plan to charge students from the remainder of the UK up to £36,000 to study in an independent Scotland must be revisited “as a matter of urgency”, students’ unions will tell MSPs today.

• Scottish independence: Unions call for clarity over post-Yes tuition fees (BBC)
• Level of uncertainty our universities do not need (Herald)
• Scottish independence: Warning over student fees (Scotsman)
• Do Scottish universities want a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’ in the referendum on independence?  (Guardian)

Employment

Graduates rely on the public sector when they go hunting for a job in Wales, according to a new analysis published today by the Complete University Guide. Graduate job market in Wales is dominated by the public sector, according to new analysis published today (Wales Online)

Wednesday

Ed Miliband has said that Labour wants to give voters a “radical offer” on tuition fees at the next election, a possible hint that the party could replace tuition fees with a graduate tax. “Young people feel they have no control because they are going to get into mountains of debt if they go to university,” he said during an appearance on ITV1’s The Agenda programme.

• Miliband’s promise of a “radical offer” on tuition fees is a major policy hint (New Statesman)
• Ed Miliband talks of ‘radical offer’ on fees (THE)

Also worth looking at this interesting piece by John Denham (Ed Miliband’s PPS). Universities need to look beyond higher tuition fees – John Denham (New Statesman)

Lib Dem Policy

In contrast, Nick Clegg has insisted there is “absolutely no need” to raise tuition fees, although he sidestepped a question on whether he would rule out such a move out altogether. Clegg insists there is no need to raise tuition fees level again (Guardian)

Immigration policy

The Conservative Party’s “obsessive” focus on immigration is destroying the party’s appeal to a growing group of voters from ethnic minorities, a Tory MP has warned. Soften immigration stance or we will lose votes, Tory MP warns his party (Times)

Regulation

Writing on a new blog launched by Hepi, Andy Westwood, CEO of GuildHE, claims universities may be moving away from their current system of self-regulation via independent peer review towards an “external model of quality and inspection”. Universities warned over ‘sleepwalking’ into Ofsted-style regime (THE)

Scottish referendum

The CBI has said it is concerned about the knock-on effect a Yes vote could have on defence; financial services; energy; food and drink and higher education. Scottish independence: Should the CBI be worried about a Yes vote? (BBC) 

Thursday

Design&: Creating the Future, our new report launched on Tuesday, is featured in Design Week today. It says that a, “new report is calling for a ‘revolution’ in design education while making a strong economic case to Government for backing design-led research.” BU’s IP research features on page 12 of the report. Report calls for a ‘revolution’ in design education (Design Week)

Policy and funding

Student places: Universities with lower applications this year have had their student number allocations for next year cut, despite the government making 30,000 extra places available. Figures from Hefce reveal for the first time which universities did not meet their places quotas in 2013-14, a year in which most institutions’ enrolments bounced back after the first year of higher tuition fees. No bonanza for those who left places unfilled (THE)

Funding: Universities have been forced to slash their teaching budgets in order to protect research funds in a move that Madeleine Atkins (Chief Executive of Hefce) has admitted “will hurt”. Lower government funding will hit university teaching budgets in England (THE)

Connecting research & growth

Regional growth: A study of the economic impact of graduates recommends universities should be placed at the centre of strategies to boost regional growth. ‘Invest in regional universities to rebalance UK economy’ (THE)

International

A look at Australia: Australia’s move to a demand-driven higher education system has not increased the proportion of poor students entering the system, a report has concluded. According to The Australian newspaper, the forthcoming report by Australia’s National Centre for Vocational Education Research finds that although the demand-driven system – which was fully implemented in 2012 – has led to more students entering higher education, most of the extra places have been taken up by students from relatively wealthy backgrounds. Lifting the cap ‘fails to widen access’ in Australia (THE)

Recruitment: Universities have been warned that they are not “profit-maximising corporations” and to ditch “marketing speak” when recruiting international students. Nigel Healey, pro vice-chancellor for internationalisation at Nottingham Trent University, rounded on universities that were using international students simply to increase their income. Focus on recruiting foreign students reveals ‘mission drift’ (THE)

Partnerships: A pioneering formal tie-up between a UK university and a US university promises to be much more than a “mountain that brings forward a mouse”, David Eastwood has pledged. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, said that the strategic alliance between his institution and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was “probably unique at the moment in terms of its breadth and depth”. UK/US institution alliance aims for collaborative growth (THE)

Student visas: The new immigration minister has said that he wants to welcome international students to the UK, in a departure from the threatening rhetoric he used earlier this month towards universities. Foreign students: a belated welcome (THE)

Friday

Research by Hefce finds that state school pupils perform better at university than privately-educated peers with the same A-level results, prompting fresh calls for a reform of the admissions system.

• White students get better degrees than minority peers with same grades (Guardian)   
• State-educated students ‘achieve better degree passes at university’   (Independent)
• Universities ‘given go ahead to favour state school pupils’  (Telegraph)
• State pupils ‘get better results at university’  (Times)
• State students who outperform private pupils at university  (Mail) 
• State pupils do better at university, study shows (BBC)
• State pupils on same grades as private counterparts ‘get better degrees’ (THE) 

Retention

Figures from HESA show that 6.7 per cent of students dropped out of university after a year in 2011/12, rising to almost one-in-five at one institution. This raises fears that school leavers are being pushed into studying at an unsuitable institution.  More than 26,000 students ‘dropping out of university’ (Telegraph)

Worth a read

‘Soft Power’ – a key asset in new international order (Guardian)

As ever, thanks to colleagues at University Alliance for the content of this post.

Monday

Sir Andrew Witty called for the boost in innovation funding in his review of universities and growth issued last year. But in its response to the Witty review, published on 14 March, the government has said it was unable to commit to raising the level of Heif in the “current tight fiscal environment”. University innovation fund will not be increased, says government (THE)

Funding

Teaching grants for universities in England are to fall by more than the £45 million announced last month, Hefce has said. Universities to get near 6 per cent cut to ‘most teaching budgets’ (THE)

Employability

A growing shortage of engineering skills threatens to hold back industry’s nascent recovery and wreck efforts to rebalance the UK economy, industrialists and politicians have said. Vince Cable told the Financial Times that skills shortages were “a massively serious problem” that could disrupt the recovery “unless we get this right”. Lack of engineers threatens UK recovery, say industrialists (FT)

Widening participation

A study has found that there is some evidence that state school students are getting more 2:1s and first class degrees. The research into 132,000 students, over three years, found state school pupils were up to 8% more likely to get a 2:1 or first-class degree than their private school counterparts with the same A-level results.

• Colleges to favour state pupils (Sunday Times)  
• State pupils beating private school rivals in university results (Times)

Scottish referendum

A Westminster committee has said independence would have a damaging effect on higher education and research in Scotland. Scottish independence: MPs claim Yes vote would damage education (BBC)

Women in science

• Girls soar in science, yet why still so few women in the lab?  (Observer – Comment)
• Academics Anonymous: sexism is driving women out of science (Guardian HE)

Tuesday

The “hidden talent” of 2.5 million young adults is being wasted because they are unemployed, working part-time or in jobs for which they are over-qualified, the Government is warned today. A report for the LGA says 40 per cent of 16-to-24-year-olds are failing to make the most of their abilities in the workplace, with nearly 1.3 million not working at all and another 1.2 million who are “underemployed or overqualified”. In some areas the proportion is close to 50 per cent. Fall in jobless hides plight of 2.5m young adults whose talents go to waste (Independent)

Gender disparities

There is concern over female participation rates in science, but gender disparities need to be addressed in many subjects argues Laura McInerney. Education: Only 29% of English A-level students are boys. Why don’t we think that’s a problem? (Guardian)

Wednesday

A letter from a group of academics in the Guardian argues that prior to 1970 science was led by mavericks with limited funding but much more academic freedom, this led to huge scientific discoveries that have enriched our lives and driven the economy. They argue that the HE system must find a way to support blue-sky thinking. We need more scientific mavericks.

Social work

A discussion piece in the Guardian examines the quality of teaching of social work courses in response to the release of two books which are critical of the preparation courses give to students. Social work training courses need to offer high quality work placements.

Thursday

The government “will not have saved any money” by trebling fees to £9,000 and scrapping nearly all direct grants to universities, a senior sector figure has said in response to data showing the “break-even point” for the new system could be rapidly approaching. Cost of new fee regime may soon exceed the old (THE)

Politics

Universities returning to Department for Education?: Asked in an interview with the FT what he would like to do next, Mr Gove replied: “What I’d really like to do is this job, plus universities.” He added: “I think that universities and science should be in this department.” The week in higher education (THE)

Research and growth

Budget 2014: George Osborne announced that £106 million will be spent over five years in 20 new centres for doctoral training, to strengthen Britain’s science, maths and engineering capabilities. It will help to train about 750 post-doctoral students to prepare them for the demands of industry. A new Alan Turing Institute is also to be built, costing £42 million over five years, to specialise in the analysis and application of “big data”.

·         Alan Turing Institute to be set up to research big data (BBC)

·         Research centre to honour Turing (Telegraph)

·         Millions to boost training and enhance research (Independent)

·         Budget 2014: Osborne seeks to boost UK’s scientific credentials (FT)

Research funding: The UK’s research councils will look at tying funding to membership of schemes such as Athena SWAN, which promotes good employment practices for women in science, if they decide universities are failing to improve gender and ethnic diversity among academic staff. Research councils may tie funding to diversity accreditation (THE)

University-business collaboration: Universities are now “hungrier” to work with industry than they have been in the past, according to a man who builds links between academia and industry for a major pharmaceutical company. Malcolm Skingle, director of academic liaison at GlaxoSmithKline, said that the change has been helped along by the research excellence framework’s impact agenda. Growing appetite for university-industry collaborations (THE)

Social mobility

Career guidance: Improving career guidance before students apply to university would significantly cut dropout rates, analysis suggests. According to a BIS research paper, those who consulted only a few sources of advice when picking their degree course were far more likely to drop out by the end of their first year. Better careers guidance ‘will reduce dropout rates’ (THE)

International

Reputation: The UK’s reputation in higher education is being tarnished by an overseas student recruitment process that is full of pitfalls, says Zakaria Mahmood. Blog: ‘The access labyrinth for foreign students’  (Daily Telegraph)

Universities

Student numbers and marketing: Does an increase in marketing spend result in an increase in student numbers? Marketing spend up, but applications fail to follow suit (THE)

Student accommodation: More than three-quarters of students live in poor accommodation, says NUS. It also claims many struggle to get help from landlords. The NUS wants tougher regulation for letting agents, like there is in Scotland, to help stop “exploitation of students”. Many students living in poor accommodation, says NUS (BBC Radio)

Friday

It is a very quiet HE news day today but one story that may be of interest. John Raftery, who has served as pro vice-chancellor at Oxford Brookes University for nine years covering areas including student experience and international strategy, will succeed current London Met vice-chancellor Malcolm Gillies later this year. London Met appoints next vice-chancellor (THE)