Latest news with #Universities
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Tuition fees are rising again and nobody is happy – it's time to actually fix our broken university sector
Tuition fees in England go up this year for the first time in eight years and the response from universities has ranged from tepid to dismayed. It's not hard to see why: Russell Group analysis found that the new amount of £9,535 a year – an increase of £285 – is a real-terms decrease of 26% since 2017. The value of the fees has been steadily eroding since 2012, and the original figure of a maximum of £9,000 a year was artificially low for many courses anyway. Universities started off cross-subsidising expensive courses whose costs weren't met by nine grand a student with the cheaper, classroom-based ones, mainly humanities, which were running a surplus. Within a decade, those courses – such as history, law, English – were running at or near cost. As the value of the fees deteriorated in real terms, staff pay and conditions were sacrificed to keep things afloat; by 2021, the University and College Union (UCU) found that staff pay had decreased by one-fifth since 2009. Throughout, the sometimes astronomical fees paid by foreign students underpinned what was otherwise an unaffordable model. This introduced a lot of risk into the system – from our own governments, when they have gone to war against student visas, and from world events: student numbers were hit when the Nigerian currency started struggling, an event over which UK universities had no control. Put simply, we have a really strange system in higher education, where nobody admits how much things actually cost, nobody admits who's paying for what, research is kept alive on the toil and goodwill of underpaid academics, foreign students who represent a huge export market and an incredible success story for the sector are treated as if they are somehow on the fiddle, and that's before you even start to consider the matter we generally look at first: what this means for graduate debt. The student loan scheme is now on its eighth iteration since it was devised by the coalition government. Originally, it was designed to be generous, to mollify the Conservatives' Liberal Democrat partners. Steadily, the maximum term from graduation has gone up (it's now 40 years in England before your debt is wiped, no longer 30) and the earnings threshold at which you start paying has gone down (it's now £25,000). Even those changes don't protect the government from the students who will never earn enough to repay – two years after the loans were formalised, parliament estimated that 40% would never fully repay. By 2018, that figure had gone up to 83% (though analysts stressed that they might repay some, but not all). You could argue that all this is the inevitable result of charging tuition fees at all, given that students in the US also labour under an astronomical amount of debt, which totalled $1.7tn at the start of this year. But the conditions we have created are murkier – unwilling to accept or discuss the impact student fees would have on equality of opportunity, we chose instead to insist that all universities offered degrees of the same financial value, and all courses cost the same, and delivered the same career benefits. This has thrown up some ridiculous consequences, in which the research that gives a university its standing has become increasingly unaffordable for all but the most prestigious institutions. Unable, meanwhile, to face the political consequences of a fees hike, successive governments have clung instead to the absurd proposition that education is somehow immune to inflation. But 'student fees aren't the problem', Martin Lewis said this week on his podcast – an astonishing remark, given the problems they are mired in, yet also true, from the perspective of the household. Whichever way you slice it, paying back fees is tomorrow's problem for the student; living costs, by contrast, are today's problem for the family. There's a separate loan available, but it's means-tested based on family income and under-25s start to lose eligibility at a household income of only £25,000. To imagine such a household having the savings available to make up any gap is just fanciful; which fits the overall picture of a system running on avoidance and delusion. A graduate tax is sometimes floated as a more progressive alternative, based as it would be on what used to be understood as a foundational principle of public policy: that wealthier people can afford to contribute more. This, along with the idea of education as a public good, which we all benefit from even if we didn't personally undertake it, has vanished from debate; yet nothing systematic or in any way realistic has replaced it. The idea of abandoning the fees experiment altogether, meanwhile, is the stuff dreams are made of because it would be unthinkably expensive. Yet the status quo we have arrived at could hardly be called cheap, unless your idea of thrift is to break a system that's been centuries in the making. Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
The Independent
6 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Universities ‘keen' to offer places to students even if they miss grades
Universities will be keen to offer places on degree courses to school leavers on A-level results day even if they have narrowly missed out on grades, experts have suggested. The head of Ucas has predicted that a record number of 18-year-olds are expected to wake up on Thursday next week to the news that they have been successful in securing their first-choice university. There will be competition between universities to fill places with more UK applicants, creating a 'buyer's market' for students. The majority of institutions have courses available through clearing – which matches applicants to university places yet to be filled – in the week before A-level results day. It comes as universities have been warning of financial pressures due to uncertainty about the recruitment of overseas students as well as years of frozen tuition fees by domestic students. A sample of 129 of the UK's largest higher education providers showed more than 22,600 courses with vacancies for undergraduate students living in England were available on the Ucas clearing site as of Wednesday. Seventeen of the 24 elite Russell Group universities had vacancies on courses for English residents – a total of 3,630 courses between them. A similar analysis last year, in the week before A-level results day, showed 18 of the 24 universities had vacancies on courses for English residents – a total of 3,892 courses between them – on the clearing site. Clearing is available to students who do not meet the conditions of their offer on A-level results day, as well as those who did not receive any offers. Students who have changed their mind about what or where they wish to study, and those who have applied outside the normal application window, can also use clearing. Eight days ahead of exam results day, there was a total of 22,698 courses through clearing across 129 institutions. A similar analysis last year – carried out at the same point before A-level results day and looking at the same range of higher education institutions – showed there were 23,306 courses through clearing. Ucas figures released last month revealed that the number of offers made to prospective undergraduate students from universities and colleges has reached a record high this year. Jo Saxton, head of the university admissions service, said she expected there to be 'slightly fewer' courses with vacancies in clearing this year due to the high number of offers already made to applicants. She said: 'Whilst the system isn't capped, universities do know how many they want to accommodate in their lecture halls and facilities, and I think that a lot of that is going to have been already pinned down through applications and offer-making prior to results.' Overall, 94.5 per cent of all students who applied to higher education before the Ucas January deadline have received at least one offer, recent figures show. Speaking about A-level results day, the Ucas boss said: 'I would anticipate a record number of 18-year-olds will wake up with confirmation, quite possibly even where they are near-misses.' She added universities are increasingly 'falling back in love' with their three-year undergraduate applicants as there is more 'uncertainty' around the international market and which overseas students are going to turn up. Dr Saxton said: 'It's a really, really good year to be a UK-domiciled 18-year-old that wants to go to one of our world-class universities. 'A couple of the directors of admissions and vice-chancellors that I talked to have talked about recognising, actually, that a three-year undergraduate student is stability for your teaching and learning, for your university community, for your financial planning.' Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think tank, said this year's cohort of school leavers are 'well placed' to get where they want to study even if they have narrowly missed their university offer grades. He said : 'The financial plight of universities makes them very keen to fill their courses and they will be falling over themselves to sign up good potential students. 'Not everything is rosy, of course, as the cost-of-living crisis has affected the student experience in deleterious ways, but ambitious school leavers are nonetheless well-placed to get where they want to be in this year's admissions round.' Mike Nicholson, director of recruitment, admissions and participation at the University of Cambridge, which does not take part in clearing, said it is 'probable' that universities will be 'looking very carefully' at near-miss students this summer. He said: 'If the student, for instance, needed three As [and] gets AAB as long as the B is not in something that's absolutely crucial for the course, I think there's a very strong possibility the student would find they'd be getting a place. 'If universities have the capacity to take near-miss students I think they'll be very keen to take them this year because those students are already in the system, they've already committed, they've possibly already even applied for accommodation. 'So, it's a much easier process to follow through on than having to go out into clearing and recruit somebody from scratch at that point in the year.' Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said: 'This year is shaping up to be a buyer's market in admissions, with many universities competing to recruit more home students. 'It's driven by basic financial necessity: institutions need to fill degree places as uncertainty grows over international student intakes and budgets tighten across the sector. 'In an increasingly volatile admissions landscape, we must ensure that the focus on financial sustainability doesn't further exacerbate educational inequalities already embedded in the system.' Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, said: 'It's certainly competitive between universities. 'From an applicant point of view, in a sense, that's a really good thing as it means you've got lots of choice. 'Clearing has changed, certainly compared to far back in the midst of time when I went to university when it used to be the kind of last-chance saloon, it's not that any more. 'Clearing is a much more widely-used tool for people to apply for the first time. 'It's also an opportunity if people want to change their minds they can use clearing to do that.' A Department for Education (DfE) spokeswoman said: 'While universities are independent from government and responsible for their own admissions decisions, it is essential that quality is maintained and that the students they admit are likely to succeed. 'Students deserve high-quality teaching, fair admissions and a clear path to good jobs, whether through a degree or technical route. 'Apprenticeship starts, participation and achievements are all on the rise, helping more people gain the skills they need.'
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Cash-strapped universities will take students who missed A-level grades
Cash-strapped universities are set to usher in students who miss their grades on A-level results day next week, the boss of Ucas has said. Jo Saxton said a 'record number' of students are likely to get their first choice place, even including those that 'near-missed' their grades. It is thought universities are desperate to fill places this year to boost their coffers amid a financial crisis in the sector. Other admissions experts said it will be a 'buyers' market' as universities 'compete' to hoover up students. Hundreds of thousands of sixth formers will receive their A-level grades next week, and find out if they have secured their first-choice university place. Historically, those who missed the grades in their offer would be rejected – but this year many will likely be kept on due to universities wanting to guarantee income. Dr Saxton, head of official admissions body Ucas, said: 'I would anticipate a record number of 18-year-olds will wake up with confirmation, quite possibly even where they are near-misses.' Universities have been hit by a fall in international students, who pay much higher fees, due to changes in visa rules. Dr Saxton said universities have now 'fallen back in love' with standard applicants due to 'uncertainty' around whether overseas students, including many postgraduates, will turn up. She added: 'It's a really good year to be a UK-domiciled 18-year-old that wants to go to one of our world-class universities. 'A couple of the directors of admissions and vice-chancellors have talked about recognising that a three-year undergraduate student is stability for your teaching and learning, for your university community, for your financial planning.' She said many universities had tried to 'pin down' students early this year so they could organise logistics such as accommodation and facilities. Anyone rejected from their first and second choice can enter Clearing, which matches unplaced students with unfilled places. Yesterday, a PA Media analysis showed 17 Russell Group universities entering Clearing this year, one less than last year. In addition, the number of courses available at these universities fell to 3,630 from 3,892 at the same point last year. It is thought this is due to universities deciding to hold on to the students they've given offers to, even if they miss their grades. Ucas figures released last month revealed that the number of offers made to prospective undergraduate students from universities and colleges has reached a record high this year. Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), said: 'The financial plight of universities makes them very keen to fill their courses and they will be falling over themselves to sign up good potential students.' Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said: 'This year is shaping up to be a buyer's market in admissions, with many universities competing to recruit more home students.' Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, added: 'It's certainly competitive between universities. 'From an applicant point of view, that's a really good thing as it means you've got lots of choice.' A Department for Education (DfE) spokesman said: 'While universities are independent from government and responsible for their own admissions decisions, it is essential that quality is maintained and that the students they admit are likely to succeed. 'Students deserve high-quality teaching, fair admissions and a clear path to good jobs, whether through a degree or technical route. 'Apprenticeship starts, participation and achievements are all on the rise, helping more people gain the skills they need.'
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Important': Huge boost to key Aus sector
Australia will lift the number of foreign students allowed to study in the 2026 academic year to 295,000, in a bid to safeguard the 'incredibly important export industry'. The figure is 25,000 higher than the number allowed by Education Minister Jason Clare for the 2025 academic year, but is still 8 per cent lower than the influx of international students after borders opened post-pandemic. It will also not account for students at TAFE or those who enrol in a public-funded university but previously attended an Australian high school. Universities will be able to request an increase to their 2025 allocations, but they must be able to show an increased engagement with Southeast Asia - as part of Australia's Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 - and that they have enough student accommodation to cater to both domestic and international students. The largest proportion of students from overseas were from China (23 per cent), India (17 per cent) and Nepal (8 per cent). Mr Clare said international education - worth $51bn to the Australian economy in 2023-24 and employing more than 250,000 workers - was an 'incredibly important export industry', but needed to be sustainably managed. 'International education doesn't just make us money - it makes us friends,' he said. 'This is about making sure international education grows in a way that supports students, universities and the national interest.' Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government's priority was ensuring the international education sector maintained the 'integrity of the migration system'. 'We are making sure student visa processing supports genuine education outcomes and our strategic priorities – including increasing provision of student accommodation,' he said. 'This is about backing providers who do the right things and giving them the certainty they need to grow sustainably.' Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles also welcomed the exclusion of TAFE from the cap, saying it would allow the international VET sector to grow sustainably and better meet skills needs. 'The diverse nationalities of international VET students present an opportunity to strengthen our international partnerships,' he said. 'From today, VET providers can plan recruitment with confidence for 2026, knowing they will continue to enjoy equitable access to student visa processing.'
News.com.au
05-08-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Labor government to increase international student cap by 25,000 for 2026 academic year
Australia will lift the number of foreign students allowed to study in the 2026 academic year to 295,000, in a bid to safeguard the 'incredibly important export industry'. The figure is 25,000 higher than the number allowed by Education Minister Jason Clare for the 2025 academic year, but is still 8 per cent lower than the influx of international students after borders opened post-pandemic. It will also not account for students at TAFE or those who enrol in a public-funded university but previously attended an Australian high school. Universities will be able to request an increase to their 2025 allocations, but they must be able to show an increased engagement with Southeast Asia - as part of Australia's Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 - and that they have enough student accommodation to cater to both domestic and international students. The largest proportion of students from overseas were from China (23 per cent), India (17 per cent) and Nepal (8 per cent). Mr Clare said international education - worth $51bn to the Australian economy in 2023-24 and employing more than 250,000 workers - was an 'incredibly important export industry', but needed to be sustainably managed. 'International education doesn't just make us money - it makes us friends,' he said. 'This is about making sure international education grows in a way that supports students, universities and the national interest.' Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government's priority was ensuring the international education sector maintained the 'integrity of the migration system'. 'We are making sure student visa processing supports genuine education outcomes and our strategic priorities – including increasing provision of student accommodation,' he said. 'This is about backing providers who do the right things and giving them the certainty they need to grow sustainably.' Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles also welcomed the exclusion of TAFE from the cap, saying it would allow the international VET sector to grow sustainably and better meet skills needs. 'The diverse nationalities of international VET students present an opportunity to strengthen our international partnerships,' he said. 'From today, VET providers can plan recruitment with confidence for 2026, knowing they will continue to enjoy equitable access to student visa processing.'
