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BBC: University place scramble gets underway
…A scramble for university is under way with up to 186,000 students chasing a dwindling number of unfilled places. With another record in the A-level pass rate, and 27% of entries gaining As or A*s, the competition appears more intense than ever. The university admissions service said 2010 was perhaps the toughest year for admissions for the past decade. Read the full article. …
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Guardian: Tackling the taxing problem of funding universities
…oes not do that quickly enough. It would exclude those who do not pay UK income tax or chose to graduate abroad. There would have to be cut-offs and exemptions, as Browne’s researchers are discovering. Worse for universities it would again centralise funding, making them more dependent on Treasury goodwill, not less as Blair-Brown intended in creating annual fees, one of their more important public sector reforms, vital to maintaining the triple-A…
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The Independent: Vince Cable announces 'graduate tax' plan
…etary said. Mr Cable was setting out a more “progressive” system of funding that includes proposals for a so-called “graduate tax”. And he admitted that as the university sector becomes more competitive, it is inevitable that some institutions will struggle and should be left to fail. Read the full article. …
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University Alliance response to HEFCE review of teaching funding method
…e for money, our funding method should continue to reflect the impact of income from tuition fees and contributions from employers? Consultation question 9: Do you consider that any other principles or features should be fundamental to our teaching funding method? Consultation question 10: What are the advantages / disadvantages associated with each of the options in paragraph 60? Are there other effective alternatives? [Download consultation resp…
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THE: Alliance contribution aims to reshape fees debate
…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 ….
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The Guardian: Why a contribution is fairer than a fee
The subject of tuition fees was noticeably absent from debate in the election. Very little was said by the three party leaders, despite the fact that many parliamentary candidates busied themselves signing up to the NUS pledge not to raise fees. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of vice-chancellors willing to say that the fee cap should be raised, or lifted completely – a development that will do nothing to enhance the public’s understanding of, or…
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The Times: ‘Parties accused of dodging protests over tuition fees’
…tion fees and maintenance loans to be funded by the private sector through sales of bonds, not by the taxpayer, as in Hungary. University Alliance, representing 22 universities including 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 fac…
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Briefing on shortfall in university places
…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 represents 22 universities at the heart of the sector. There have been significant i…
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The Independent: ‘Battle for doctoral funds: Should government cash for PhDs be restricted to the best universities?’
…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….