…ntry to Higher Education in 2010 show a 22.9% increase in applications from 2009 (UCAS data release 8 February 2010). Steve Smith, President of Universities UK has commented: “Last year about 160,000 students who applied didn’t end up going to university. This year, we already know that there are about another 75,000 applying for university. So… there will be a lot of students this year who do not get a place at university.” University Alliance re…
…In the university world, differences of opinion are nothing new. But the outcome of this one might just change the character of higher education itself. Universities are at odds over the future of postgraduate study, with a Government review on the subject, due to report in the spring, setting up sharply diverging views on how PhDs should be funded just as finances for the sector as a whole come under huge pressure. Read the full article….
…ease in applications to Engineering at Hertfordshire University by 32% from 2009 compares to a 14% national average increase. “It is heartening to see that the significant effort which has been put into raising aspirations in STEM subjects is paying off. The students applying for entry in 2010 will be graduating into an ever changing and dynamic market and Alliance universities have a proven record (2) of working with them to ensure that they are…
…ucate 26% of all UK students and offer a research-informed, academic learning environment and a culture of entrepreneurialism, equipping graduates for the 21st century. This response follows discussion amongst our Pro Vice-Chancellors with responsibility for teaching, learning and quality at a University Alliance Quality Seminar held on 18 February 2010. Our response highlights the key issues raised by Alliance universities and is intended to comp…
…sity, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, University of Wales, Newport, University of the West of England. For further information, please contact: Communications Team, Oxford Brookes University on 01865 484454…
…nship between excellence, concentration and critical mass in UK research’. Commenting on the report Director of University Alliance, Libby Aston, said: “Future policy on research concentration has seemed a little uncertain since RAE 2008 results demonstrated that peaks of world-leading research excellence were distributed more widely than had been anticipated. The evidence, however, remains very clear: selectivity not concentration has driven exce…
…base, in terms of both its economic and its social contribution…leading to complacency and ossification.” Excellence is not determined by volume alone There is no direct correlation between volume and excellence outside some of the physical sciences. The relationship between volume and excellence varies by discipline. Three broad categories were identified by experts at the University of Leeds for the HEFCE Fundamental Review of Research Policy an…
…true and might look like an extra subsidy for the middle classes, although actually it just replaces the subsidy they already get from the subsidised interest rate. Past patterns of repayment are based on lower levels of debt, so we do not know how many loans might be repaid without a discount. And if the Government was worried about missing out, it could limit the scheme to the fee element of loans and test the hypothesis by seeing how many stude…
