News round-up: Fierce competition for students means some universities risk bankruptcy

The UK spends less on R&D than Iceland, the new Welsh funding regime is less generous than it seems and the removal of the cap on student numbers has led to some universities losing out in the fight for students

UK flounders behind Iceland, Luxembourg and Denmark for University R&D spend

FE News, 30/08/2018, Rupert Bhatia

The amount Britain’s universities are spending on research and development is being dwarfed by their European neighbours, according to analysis of OECD data by R&D tax specialists Catax.

The UK spends 0.42% of its GDP on university-based R&D which translates to just £3,587 for each of the country’s 2.3 million students in higher education.

‘Don’t copy Welsh funding regime without considering trade-offs’

Times Higher Education, 30/08/2018, Anna McKie

It has been billed as “the most generous student maintenance package in the UK”, but a new analysis highlights that Wales’ new funding regime may not be quite as rosy as at first glance.

A report by the Higher Education Policy Institute, published on 30 August, highlights that the reforms being introduced for new entrants in 2018-19 mean that poorer Welsh students will get less maintenance support up front and will leave university with more debt than in previous years.

Study: millions of students guilty of contract cheating worldwide
Times Higher Education, 30/08/2018, Anna McKie

A landmark study has revealed a rapid increase in the use of contract cheating by students at universities around the world.

Based on recent surveys, the paper concludes that as many as one in seven recent graduates may have recruited someone else to undertake an assignment for them – potentially representing 31 million learners across the globe.

Cut-throat A-level season ‘pushing some universities towards insolvency’

The Guardian, 28/08/2018, Anna Fazackerley

Some universities may be pushed to the brink of insolvency after the most cut-throat A-level student recruitment round vice-chancellors can remember, experts are warning.

The removal of the cap on the number of students universities can recruit, combined with a demographic fall in the number of 18-year-olds, has created a fierce new market in higher education. Prestigious universities are sucking up students who might previously have chosen mid-ranking institutions. The knock-on effect is leaving some universities without enough students – and their £9,250 fees.

Unconditional offers use ‘still low in Russell Group’

Times Higher Education, 28/08/2018, Simon Baker

Just a handful of universities in the Russell Group of UK research intensives are making unconditional offers to prospective undergraduates before they get their exam results, according to a survey by Times Higher Education.

More than half of the group said in response to Freedom of Information requests that they did not use such offers, suggesting that their use is still mainly being driven by less selective universities in the sector.

Crick chief voices fears over post-Brexit visa regime

Times Higher Education, 28/08/2018, Rachel Pells

The leader of Europe’s largest biomedical research institute has warned that restrictions on researcher mobility post-Brexit would have a disastrous impact on science and has questioned whether a new UK visa scheme will resolve his concerns.

‘Hasty’ funding calls ‘prejudiced against women and carers’

Times Higher Education, 23/08/2018, Rachel Pells

“Hasty” grant calls demanding tight deadlines for research proposals are discriminatory against women and those with caring responsibilities, academics have warned.

A funding call announced this month by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council sparked warnings that average call turnaround times are becoming shorter, making applications all but impossible for those who are not “plugged into” the right networks. The ESRC invited proposals for research projects on management practices and employee engagement on 6 August, with a closing date of 18 September, giving academics 31 working days to apply.

HE should take over FE’s sub-degree courses, says Hepi report

Times Higher Education, 23/08/2018, Anna McKie

Sub-degree higher education courses in England should be delivered mainly in universities, not further education colleges, according to a report published by the Higher Education Policy Institute.

The report, written by London South Bank University vice-chancellor Dave Phoenix, says that if the government wants to address the growing skills gap in the UK, it has to reverse the decline in Level 4 and Level 5 qualifications – such as foundation degrees or Higher National Certificates or Diplomas – particularly in technical subjects.

from CDBU http://cdbu.org.uk/news-round-up-fierce-competition-for-students-means-some-universities-risk-bankruptcy/
via IFTTT

source https://advertisingproductioncompany.tumblr.com/post/177583406130

News round-up: Lower-tariff universities suffer most as numbers of students accepted for university falls again

Universities dish out cash ‘bribes’ to students with unconditional offers to hit their grades
i newspaper, 17/08/2018, Richard Vaughan

Universities have been accused of dishing out cash “bribes” to students with unconditional offers of places to stop them slacking off before taking A-levels. Institutions are promising the financial incentives, worth up to £3,00, to students amid fierce competition in the sector to fill their courses.

A-levels: proportion of students in England getting C or above falls

The Guardian, 16/08/2018, Richard Adams and Caelainn Barr

The proportion of students in England gaining C grades or above in A-levels fell back this year, driven by a relatively weaker performance among girls, as schools and students continue to grapple with the introduction of new, more intensive exams.

See also: Teenagers make top A-level grades despite course reforms

Financial Times, 16/08/2018, Andrew Jack

A-level results day 2018: UK student acceptances down 2 per cent

Times Higher Education, 16/08/2018, Anna McKie

Lower-tariff universities are bearing the brunt of a fall in acceptances to UK universities in 2018 stemming from a decline in the number of 18-year-olds in the general population, Ucas analysis on A-level results day shows.

Ucas released figures showing that across UK institutions 411,860 students had been placed on an undergraduate course, a 1 per cent decrease on results day last year

Young people ‘more sceptical about value of university’ – poll

The Guardian, 16/08/2018, Richard Adams

Young people are becoming more sceptical about the benefits of going to university, despite a large majority saying they want to carry on to higher education, research suggests.

Oxford plans new college amid postgrad and undergrad growth

Times Higher Education, 16/08/2018, Anna McKie

The University of Oxford is consulting on plans to create a new “graduate college” that could also accommodate a major expansion in postgraduate numbers, as well as on proposals to mount a smaller expansion of undergraduate numbers – reigniting the debate over the institution’s long-standing resistance to more significant growth.

Government accused of ‘total failure’ to widen elite university access

The Guardian, 15/08/2018, Jessica Elgot

Ministers have been accused of a “total and abject failure” to widen access to top universities for disadvantaged students, after analysis by the Labour party found the proportions attending Russell Group universities had increased by only one percentage point since 2010.

UK Master’s fees soar after introduction of postgraduate loans

Times Higher Education, 16/08/2018, Simon Baker

With the future of undergraduate tuition fees in UK universities now in the balance as a major review takes place into post-18 education funding in England, there has at least been some policy stability in the past few years in master’s funding.

University unconditional offers ‘undermine education’

BBC, 14/08/2018, Bethan Lewis

The education system is being undermined by universities making more unconditional offers, according to the head of Wales’ biggest college.

David Jones, of Coleg Cambria, said offers were coming half way through courses and meant many A-level students were taking their “foot off the pedal”.

Durham University abandons attempt to get students out of bed early

The Times, 14/08/2018, Rosemary Bennett

Durham University has learnt the hard way never to come between teenagers and their beds.

The university has been forced to admit defeat in its efforts to drag students from under the duvet to start lectures at 8am. Plans for lectures to begin at this unhappy hour have been cancelled after resistance from undergraduates and their tutors.

In June, The Times reported that law and business studies undergraduates would have 8am lectures scheduled from this autumn to cope with the increase in student numbers. Because the intake on these courses is so large the university was planning to divide the year into two and teach them separately, with one unlucky group starting their work before 9am.

Exam boards launch review as parents exploit mental health loophole to get students extra time

Daily Telegraph, 14/08/2018, Camilla Turner

Exam boards have been told to launch a review following concerns that parents are using mental health to exploit a loophole and get students extra time.

As thousands of pupils prepare to receive their A-level results this Thursday, an exam chief has hit out at the “flawed” system which some are manipula

from CDBU http://cdbu.org.uk/news-round-up-lower-tariff-universities-suffer-most-as-numbers-of-students-accepted-for-university-falls-again/
via IFTTT

source https://advertisingproductioncompany.tumblr.com/post/177088723775

University places are up for grabs in Clearing – but students are not the winners

The fall in applications has led to fierce competition between universities, a drop in income and an uncertain future for both students and staff, argues Professor GR Evans

The A-level results are out. Applicants are getting to grips with fending for themselves in Clearing (no, they will not let your mother telephone for you).

But it is not just would-be students who are balancing their immediate options and hoping for a successful future. With 26,000 places still unfilled on results day, the providers of places are struggling to survive in the present funding system. The now almost complete replacement of the block grant for teaching with income from tuition fees means they have to bring enough students in or ultimately go under.

Yet the pool of UK school-leavers who can fill places and bring in the tuition fees with the aid of the Student Loans Company is shrinking and the drop in part-time applications continues unresolved. The valuable EU intake is being affected by the uncertainties of Brexit. International students, struggling with the expectations of Western European higher education, are reported to be thinking twice and looking elsewhere.

Some of the adjustment of admissions practice to keep numbers up has been visible. One way is to lower the A-Level grades required. Another is to require no grades at all. There has been a ‘huge’ noted rise in unconditional offers.

Students are using Clearing to game the system

That should have locked in a guaranteed number of students, but it seems to have prompted a new form of gaming. Even students holding such offers (prompted by ambitious parents) are said to be chancing an adventure in clearing in hopes of doing better for themselves. That has become possible only because some Russell Group universities have begun to have unfilled places available in clearing.

The harder A-level syllabus and the shift to end-of-course examinations will produce its first results this year. It was intended to meet the difficulty of grade-inflation and the problem that applicants admitted with highly respectable A-Level grades were struggling with degree-level work. The OFQAL plan to prevent this year’s candidates being disadvantaged by lowering of the grade boundaries to compensate may confuse the disrupted system of rating applicants still further.

Universities are expanding popular courses to bring in more money

Packing ’em in to bring in the money already has consequences for students themselves. Durham had admitted so many undergraduates in law and business studies that it planned to divide them into two groups and schedule lectures at 8.00am for one group to fit the extra teaching in. It has had to abandon that idea. Elsewhere too modules and whole degrees are being reorganised to accommodate larger groups in currently fashionable subjects.

There is a further consequence that can be glimpsed through the reports of angry UCU branches. The prompter is not simply the desperate need to divert academics to provision of teaching to meet the needs of the largest number of students which can be attracted to meet what may prove to be a short-term demand. It is complicated by the need to balance this desideratum against the need to bring in the largest possible tranche of research funding through the next Research Excellence Framework exercise.

To both ends, institutional research strategies may allow managements to frame a business case justifying the closing down of whole areas of research. But to expand coverage for more students, those on ‘permanent’ teaching-and-research contracts may be targeted for redundancy and then offered ‘transfer’ to teaching-only posts. Faced with this sort of thing, Leicester UCU is balloting about a strike.

The whole system is thus being destabilised by the need to bring in tuition fees and the impossibility of planning realistically ahead. Academic careers as well as student futures are made precarious.

from CDBU http://cdbu.org.uk/university-places-are-up-for-grabs-in-clearing-but-students-are-not-the-winners/
via IFTTT

source https://advertisingproductioncompany.tumblr.com/post/177053399465

News round-up: ‘Universities battle over a shrinking pool of applicants’: the number of students applying to university drops again

A rise in unconditional offers and arguments over student loans have dominated the higher education new in the past month

Call to rethink China branch campuses over academic freedom risks

Times Higher Education, 02/08/2018, Ellie Bothwell

Western universities have been told to rethink their collaborations in China in the wake of the latest attacks on academic freedom in the country.

In one of the most recent cases, an academic was removed from the management board of the University of Nottingham’s Ningbo campus for criticising the ruling Communist Party’s policies on freedom of thought.

Only most research-intensive UK universities ‘cover full costs’

Times Higher Education, 01/08/2018, Simon Baker

Only the most research-intensive universities in the UK tend to “break even” and recover the full costs of all their research and teaching activity, new figures have suggested.

According to data released for the first time by the Office for Students, such institutions make the biggest surpluses from teaching international students and lose the least money from conducting research.

More medicine places in clearing as providers battle for students

Times Higher Education, 01/08/2018, Anna McKie

Growing numbers of places in UK medical schools are expected to be filled via clearing this year, as universities battle over a shrinking pool of applicants.

Ahead of the release of A-level results on 16 August, sector leaders predicted that clearing will be more competitive than ever this year, driven by a 2 per cent drop in applications. Much of the decline is driven by the shrinking of the 18-year-old population, which has decreased by 2.3 per cent in England.

Education secretary: elite universities must improve access

The Guardian, 31/07/2018, Nadia Khomami

Elite universities are not instinctively biased against disadvantaged children but must do more to improve access, the UK’s education secretary has said.

In his first major speech on social mobility, Damian Hinds said there was a “very legitimate public interest” to ensure attempts to encourage children to attend the top higher education institutions reach “deep into the country” and to every group.

UK student satisfaction continues to fall amid debt and strikes

The Guardian, 27/07/2018, Richard Adams

Concerns over graduate debt and strikes on many campuses may have dented students’ satisfaction with their courses, according to the results of a national survey, with students at some of London’s most prestigious institutions among the most unhappy.

Rise in unconditional offers prompts call for university admissions overhaul

The Guardian, 26/07/2018, Richard Adams

The number of students receiving unconditional offers for university places has leapt again this year, prompting calls for an overhaul of the UK’s convoluted and unreliable university admissions process.

Ucas figures show that nearly one in four 18-year-olds applying from England, Wales and Northern Ireland have received an unconditional offer – meaning they can accept an undergraduate place without meeting the A-level or BTech grades predicted by their teachers.

Student loan repayment income ‘undervalued by £600m’

The Guardian, 20/07/2018, Richard Adams

A clash between the Department for Education and the Treasury over how to value the government’s student loans portfolio may have led to more than £600m in income from future loan repayments being overlooked, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned.

The watchdog also advised that the government should take ‘a comprehensive view’ and carefully consider the potential impact on the government’s finances of future loan sales.

Examining last year’s sale of a tranche of loans to 400,000 students, the NAO was highly critical of the Treasury’s calculations and their differences over likely repayment rates from the DfE’s forecasts.

See also:

Student loan sale cost UK £604m in lost revenues, auditor finds

Financial Times, 20/07/2018, Gavin Jackson

Student loan change may wreck Brexit ‘war chest’

The Times, 18/07/2018, Philip Aldrick

Changes in the accounting treatment of student loans could cost the chancellor his £15 billion Brexit war chest and leave his fiscal rules in tatters. The Office for National Statistics and the European statistical authorities are reviewing the way that the government accounts for the student loan book, which is on track to hit £20 billion by 2023, amid concerns that the present convention is a ‘fiscal illusion’ that is creating ‘perverse incentives’.

A decision by Eurostat is expected shortly on whether a different treatment should be applied. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, a preferred option would to increase the deficit by £15 billion, ‘roughly equal to the margin by which the chancellor was meeting his fiscal target in our most recent forecast’.

Red Box: Brexit must not endanger the soft power projected by universities

The Times, 18/07/2018, Nicola Brewer

Comment piece about Brexit, universities and the UK’s ability to exercise soft power after Brexit: ‘It is true that soft power works best when it comes from a place of economic strength. And higher education is a massively successful UK services export: international students alone bring a net benefit of over £20 billion a year into the British economy. […]Worldwide, there are many hundreds of thousands of alumni from British universities — 250,000 of them from UCL alone, and growing every year. These alumni develop a special relationship with our nation that they take home with them. It is impossible to put a price tag on the value of this exchange of knowledge, expertise, values and culture.’

More than 10% of students ‘use their bodies’ to pay for university fees when facing emergency costs, study claims

The Independent, 18/07/2018, Olivia Petter

A new study of 3,167 students in the UK has revealed that 78 per cent are struggling to get by, with some even turning to sex work to make ends meet. According to data from the National Student Money Survey, conducted by money advice site Save the Student, more than one in 10 students are “using their bodies” to make money when they are unexpectedly caught short of funds.

Martin Lewis: England must swap ‘loans’ for graduate contribution

Times Higher Education, 18/07/2018, John Morgan

Consumer finance expert Martin Lewis has long argued that dropping the terminology of ‘student loans’ in favour of ‘graduate contributions’ would be a crucial change to England’s student finance system.

The Westminster government’s review of post-18 education is expected to report in the autumn, and dropping the terminology of ‘loans’ is certain to be on its agenda. Mr Lewis’ passionate views on this and other aspects of student finance could prove significant. ‘If we’re going to fix things, the first thing we need to do is actually call [the student loan] what it is: a graduate contribution,’ Mr Lewis argued. He added: ‘Most of the questions [from the public] I still get are, ‘I’m so worried about this loan; what happens if my child doesn’t get a high-earning job?’ You would never get asked that question if you called it a graduate contribution system.’

UK government ‘will call out monoculture tendency on campus’

Times Higher Education, 17/07/2018, John Morgan

The Westminster government is ‘committed to calling out [a] tendency towards a “monoculture” on campus’ and claims that some people feel ‘unsafe or threatened if they speak out’ in universities. The government made the comments in its response to the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report into freedom of speech in universities.

Sam Gyimah, the universities minister, has consistently seized on the issue of free speech in universities, a popular topic for newspapers such as the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. The government had already announced plans to simplify existing guidance around free speech for universities and students’ unions after Mr Gyimah hosted a meeting with organisations including Universities UK, the National Union of Students and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. That new guidance will be published in the autumn, the government says.

Scale of research misconduct is unknown because of poor reporting by universities, say MPs

British Medical Journal, 10/07/2018, Gareth Iacobucci

A quarter of UK universities are failing to produce an annual report on research integrity, a parliamentary inquiry has found.

The report by the Commons Science and Technology Committee identified a “lack of consistent transparency” in reporting data on the number of misconduct investigations, and inconsistency in the way the information is recorded.

These failings have made it difficult to calculate the scale of research misconduct in the UK, it concluded.

The report examined what is known about problems arising from errors, questionable practices, and fraud in research, and what action is needed to make sure that problems are handled appropriately.

Tens of thousands of graduates have overpaid their student loan by an average £581

Daily Telegraph, 10/07/2018, Sam Meadows

Tens of thousands of graduates have made student loan repayments worth £50m despite having already paid off their entire debt.

Figures released in response to a Freedom of Information request reveal that 85,720 former students made overpayments totalling £49.8m in 2016-17, the latest year for which records are available.

The problem stems from crossed wires between the taxman and the Student Loans Company (SLC), which manages student debt. Although HM Revenue & Customs receives repayment information on a monthly basis, it only passes this on to the SLC once a

from CDBU http://cdbu.org.uk/news-round-up-universities-battle-over-a-shrinking-pool-of-applicants-the-number-of-students-applying-to-university-drops-again/
via IFTTT

source https://advertisingproductioncompany.tumblr.com/post/176587357355