Mike Hancock News
Briefing: Higher Education Paper - Students at the Heart of the System
29 June 2011
Briefing: Higher Education Paper - Students at the Heart of the System
- We've asked graduates to pay more to make higher education funding sustainable.
- o No one pays up front
- o No one pays till they are earning over £21k
- o Low monthly payments, e.g. £7.50 a month on salary of £22k - under the current system they would pay £52.50 a month.
- o Part-time students have access to loans for the first time
- Because we've asked graduates to pay more it is only right that universities deliver for students. Students will have a much greater say in the experience they receive from their university. This White Paper is all about ensuring that they get their money's worth by putting them at the heart of the Higher Education system. It's about making universities accountable to students, and it's about expanding student choice.
- We estimate that institutional budgets can increase by 10% following our reforms. Universities, set to benefit from these higher incomes, will have to deliver a better package for students - including activities to increase social mobility and recruit people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- The White Paper reforms focus on improving teaching, improving access and improving choice.
- For students, this will mean better information before they apply, better teaching at university, more feedback on their work and better preparation for the job market.
- Institutions which respond to student expectations and offer a good overall package will be able to accommodate increased demand, because we are liberalising students number controls - 85,000 places in the first year alone, meaning that one in four places will be freed up.
- These reforms will therefore incentivise institutions to compete more effectively with each other to attract students.
- Besides increased incomes for universities, the reforms also promise less regulation and bureaucracy.
- Autonomy andaccountability go hand in hand, though. In place of process and paperwork, universities will face a more amore robust regime for ensuring standards, teaching quality and access.
- o Universities will be more accountable to students on teaching quality, who can trigger an inspection through their complaints.
- o Universities will be more accountable to the Office of Fair Access on their efforts to increase social mobility, who can refuse universities permission to charge higher tuition fees.
- The reforms will deliver an effective and workable HE system for the long-term:
- o it will give students a better university experience
- o it will promote greater social mobility
- o It will put HE finances on a sustainable footing - without cutting quality or student numbers
- o and it will deliver savings to the Exchequer to help address the huge deficit inherited by the current Government.
Improving the student experience
1) Information and employability
Information
- There will be a transformation in the information available on universities for prospective students. Applicants will have directly comparable data on 17 different areas in all, allowing them to make informed choices.
- These areas include teaching hours, accommodation costs, and employment rates and future salaries of graduates by university and by course.
- We will encourage universities to publish information about the teaching qualifications and expertise of teaching staff at all levels.
- The content of employability statements from 2011 will be reviewed to see how they can be more useful to prospective students.
- The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will have a new role as consumer champion for students, promoting their best interests.
Employability
- We will encourage universities to work with employers to co-design, accredit or "kitemark" courses. This will indicate to students the courses that employers value most.
- We will work with entrepreneurial bodies to help students develop enterprise skills at university in order to start their own business.
- We will review how universities collaborate with business on both research and teaching - to support growth and make sure graduates are equipped to excel in the workforce.
- We will continue to support the Graduate Talent Pool in 2011, helping graduates to identify internship opportunities and to experience the world of work.
- We will commission ideas for ways of giving students more workplace experience during university through initiatives like sandwich courses.
2) Social mobility
All institutions charging more than £6,000 must agree and renew their Access Agreements with OFFA annually - setting out plans and targets to attract students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- We will ask the Director of Fair Access to report to us this autumn about further sanctions and powers to support OFFA in its work - so that it can go further and faster to drive fair access and widen participation.
- We want OFFA to undertake more research and give more advice on best practice.
- The new National Scholarship Programme will begin in 2012. By 2014/15, it will provide £150 million to improve access. All participating universities (including all charging over £6,000) will contribute additional funds.
3) More choice
Number controls
- We want to increase the range of institutions and courses available to students.
- So we're relaxing government controls over student numbers so that student demand determines which institutions can grow. We will start in 2012-13 by freeing up controls on 85,000 places.
- o We will allow unconstrained recruitment of 65,000 high-achieving students - typically achieving A-level grades of AAB or better - to increase competition among universities for the brightest.
- o We will also create a flexible margin to reallocate places to new providers and high-quality existing providers charging at or below £7,500.
- We will relax student number controls further in future years.
New providers
- To encourage diversity in HE, we will remove entry barriers for new providers. We will legislate in 2012 (for the 2013/14 academic year) to ensure that all HE providers can secure government support via students loans on an equal footing, so long as they meet common quality standards. There are already private providers involved in delivering HE, University of Buckingham or the College of Law for example.
- We intend to legislate to end the current situation whereby only teaching institutions can award degrees. This could allow students to take a degree from a recognised body at, say, their local college.
- HEFCE will have a new role as promoter of a competitive system - with a duty to take competition implications into account when making decisions on funding.
Sector consultations
- We will consult on introducing a system of university applications once grades are known, instead of using predicted grades. The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) will advise on this idea.
- We will consult on whether there should be a charge for the early repayment of loans.
- We will consult on a new, single regulatory framework for higher education - covering all institutions wanting to be recognised in the English higher education system.
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