Public Education

Some schools in England can expect to have their budgets frozen under new government proposals to reform the funding system.

Four options have been published for consultation, suggesting different ways of calculating extra funding on top of a basic entitlement.

Different areas would benefit or lose out - depending on the option - in a range from +5.3% to -3.2% of current funding, on average.

The effect will depend on how much the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, gives to education - ministers are promising only that no school will actually be worse off in real terms.

Click here to see the possible effects

Phasing

The proposals are the result of lengthy discussions by a working group made up of local and central government representatives, set up following the government’s green paper on modernising local government finance, which came out in September 2000.

The consultation on the latest education options ends on 30 September this year.

The Department for Education said the new formula that was finally chosen would be phased in.

All local authority areas would be guaranteed “year-on-year increases that will ensure they can at least maintain schools funding in real terms.”

The length of the phasing-in period will depend on how much education gets from the chancellor in the spending review, which is expected to be announced in the next week. Read the rest of this entry »

Nearly half (45%) of final-year students at the UK’s top universities view their career prospects as “very limited”, a survey suggests.

The poll of 16,000 finalists found a third feared last year’s graduates would take up most of the vacancies.

One in six said they would not have gone to university if they had known how tough the jobs market was going to be, the research by High Fliers found.

In total, 26% plan further study, 16% plan to travel and 14% are undecided.

The survey of finalists at 30 leading universities found just 36% expected to start or look for a graduate-level job after leaving university this summer.

And 8% intended to take up temporary or voluntary work. - reports BBC News.

Salary expectations

The media, teaching and marketing were the top three graduate career choices for students graduating in 2010 - as they were for 2009.

Applications for jobs in information technology (IT) and engineering were down 5% and 11% respectively on last year.

For the second year running, graduate salary expectations have dropped, with final year job hunters expecting to earn an average of £22,000 for their first job - 3.1% less than in 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

The coalition government has pledged to create more university places in England but stopped short of saying whether tuition fees will rise.

It would instead await the findings of Lord Browne’s independent review of student funding.

These would be judged against the impact of student debt and the need to widen university access.

The Liberal Democrats, who wanted to scrap fees, would be allowed to abstain in a vote on the issue.

The government has not yet said how many extra places would be funded.

The coalition’s Programme for Government says it will review Lord Browne’ s review of higher education before making a decision on the future of university funding.

Abstentions

But it pledges to “judge its proposals against the need to - increase social mobility; - take into account the impact on student debt; - ensure a properly funded university sector; - improve the quality of teaching; - advance scholarship; and - attract a higher proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

It adds: “If the response of the government to Lord Browne’s review is one that the Liberal Democrats cannot accept; then arrangements will be made to enable Liberal Democrat MPs to abstain in any vote”.

The issue is a policy difference between the two parties in government.

The Lib Dems campaigned on a ticket of phasing out tuition fees over six years, while the Tories said they would await the official review of fees. Read the rest of this entry »

Young people from poorer backgrounds are still struggling to get into top universities, says the agency in charge of widening access to higher education.

The wealthiest 20% of youngsters are seven times more likely than the most disadvantaged 40% to get places at England’s most selective universities.

The Office for Fair Access (Offa) says there has been no significant change since the mid-1990s.

This “weak point” must improve, says Universities Minister David Willetts.

The report from Offa considers how to widen accss to the top universities.

Tuition fees

Sir Martin Harris, director of Offa, says that bright disadvantaged youngsters need to be identified and supported at an earlier age.

This should happen before the age of 14 when pupils are making their decisions about GCSE options, he says.

“Right at the heart of the matter is the need to ensure that those young people with the potential to succeed in a research-intensive university, but who do not currently choose to apply, are identified as early as possible,” says Sir Martin.

Offa was set up to protect access to university for poorer students when tuition fees were increased four years ago.

It is now submitting a report to the review of university funding chaired by Lord Browne, which could recommend a further increase in fees.

The report says that while more students from poorer families are getting into university, there remains much less progress in the most sought-after university courses.

Access from the 40% least disadvantaged youngsters has been “almost flat since the mid-1990s”. Read the rest of this entry »

Students should pay higher fees to go to university in England, says the Russell Group of leading universities.

The group’s submission to Lord Browne’s funding review sets out how the £3,225-a-year fee could rise to £9,000 without extra costs in taxpayers’ subsidies.

“An increase in graduate contributions is the fairest and only viable option for addressing the funding shortfall,” says the Russell Group statement.

Students described the proposals as a “nightmare scenario”. - reports BBC News.

The National Union of Students said this lifting of the cap on fees would mean “mortgage-style debts” of more than £40,000.
Higher repayments

The UCU lecturers’ union said that such an increase in tuition fees would be “the most regressive piece of education policy since the war” which would “price a generation out of higher education”.

The Russell Group wants the level of tuition fees to be high enough to create a range of different charges for different courses - and for students to re-pay loans at a higher interest rate.

This combination of higher fees and reduced subsidies would mean that fees could be raised to £9,000 per year, without extra cost to the Treasury, says the report.

Lord Browne’s cross-party review, set to report later this year, is considering how universities in England should be funded.

This includes asking whether there should be any limit on fees - and whether the current maximum of £3,225 per year should be lifted.

The influential Russell Group, representing 20 prestigious universities, has now told the review that the only practical way of funding higher education is to have higher charges for students.

There would also be a reduction in the subsidy on student loans, with repayments at more of a commercial rate. Read the rest of this entry »