…ersity – argues that its system would dispel “myths” about an upfront cost to university study and the language of debt. Its plans would see the troubled Student Loans Company replaced with a “Graduate Contribution Agency”. Read the full article ….
…o enhance the public’s understanding of, or affection for, fees. If we were able to step outside of this sphere for a moment we might learn some lessons about why there is such a divide between public opinion on university funding and the view from within the sector. It isn’t simply about money or the fee cap. Read the full article….
…ing Oxford Brookes, Bournemouth, Plymouth and Nottingham Trent, said that companies should, in return, charge students higher interest on loans. Typical interest rates might rise to 4.5 or 5 per cent, from their current rate pegged to inflation. Students would not face higher monthly repayments but would repay loans over longer periods. Read the full article….
…ta 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 represents 22 universities at the heart of the sector. There have been significant increase…
…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….
…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 complement the individual and more d…
…first report ‘Concentration and Diversity: understanding the relationship 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, howeve…
…cellence 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 and Funding: high impact at high volume (where volume is related to impact, for example the clinical sciences)…
…ddle 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 students also repaid the rest of what they owed. It would…