Political Updates

Tuition Fees

Both the House of Commons (HoC) and Lords approved recommendations suggested by the Browne review to increase tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000 per year before Christmas. The government is due to publish a White Paper in February 2011 which will outline more specifically the government’s plans for HE funding and tuition fees. Once the White Paper is published we will have a much deeper understanding of the government’s proposals and can assess more effectively, how the changes will affect UCA students.

To appease critics of the tuition fee increase the government has announced a series of ‘concessions’. This includes raising the threshold for graduates to begin repaying the loan to £21k and part time students studying for 25% of the time will not pay fees upfront.

HE Funding

Shortly before Christmas the government published its grant letter for higher education in 2011-12 and indicative figures for 2012-13 to the Chair of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Click here to read the response from HEFCE and to download a copy of the grant letter. /
Key points in this letter are as followed;

• More funding will be routed directly to students and therefore less funding will be routed to institutions via the Funding Council.
• New arrangements come into force in 2012-13 so 2011-12 is to be seen as a transition period.
• Ring fenced settlement for Science and Research.
• Council’s overall settlement for 2011-12 is around a 6% reduction in teaching grant.
• Aimhigher is being scrapped completely.
• Entrant places to HE in Autumn 2011 will remain at level of Autumn 2010, which means continuing the extra 10,000 places as in 2010, but this will not occur in 2012-13.
• Control of pension costs and advise council to introduce a pay-freeze.

HEFCE has also predicted that 23 HEI’s may be “at high risk” of needing intervention to stop them from failing by the end of 2012-13. See the article here . 

EMA

On 19th Jan the HoC voted against Labour’s call for the government to “rethink” its plans on EMA. This means that from Sept 2011 EMA will cease to exist, however, there are plans to create a fund which is paid direct to FE institutions and which institutions administer. At the moment there are very few details of these new proposals. 

General news

KPMG, a leading accountancy firm have announced a scheme whereby they pay entrants tuition fees, which David Willetts Universities Minister has commented “It’s the kind of initiative that we hope will flourish as we reform higher education” You can see the article here .
CSR (Comprehensive Spending Review) announced that the Arts Council will have funding cut by 30% 
Latest yougov polls give Labour on average a 3 point lead over the Conservatives and Lib Dems. Labour won the by-election in Oldham East increasing their share of the vote from May. Lib Dems percentage increased by 0.3%, while the Conservatives share of the vote fell by 13.6%. This by-election is significant as it was the first opportunity for the electorate to pass judgement of the coalition since the general election in May.

Student Charters

The Student Charter Group was established to explore current good practice of Student Charters and to report the findings to David Willets MP (Minister of State for Universities and Science). Click here to read comment from David Willets and the final report from the Student Group.

The government will use this report to inform its strategy for HE which will be published in the forthcoming White Paper.

Key points made in the report include;
- Student charters will, if used effectively establish clear mutual expectations.
- One charter per HEI to cover all courses and levels.
- Should focus on current students.
- Do NOT recommend legal style student ‘contracts’.
- Suggested to be reviewed annually.
- Joint venture with SU’s and must involve students and student reps which should continue with joint monitoring and review.
- Charters act as a ‘front page’ with links to further information i.e. course handbooks, university regulations etc.
- Charter split into 3 parts: HEI, Students and Students Union.

Key Information Set (KIS)

HEFCE are currently consulting on ‘Public Information about Higher Education’, in particular on changes to information published by institutions.
To see the details of the proposed policy developments, along with details of how to respond to the consultation click here . We will be responding to the consultation and will publish our response on the website.

The proposed policy development is centred on Key Information Set (KIS) which institutions would publish for each course with set information to inform prospective students, as evidence for quality assurance processes and to enhance quality of HE provision.
Proposed KIS would publish information on student course satisfaction levels, teaching, learning and assessment, details of recent graduates including average earnings, details of bursaries and costs of accommodation and information from the Students Union i.e. election turnout, number of clubs and socs. The proposals also include ways to develop the NSS and includes proposals to allow Student Unions to nominate one optional bank in their institutions NSS each year.

Access Agreements

BIS (Department of Business, Innovation and Skills) published Guidance to the Director of OFFA giving details of Access Agreements for universities who wish to charge over the basic £6,000 level of tuition fees. You can read the guidance here . 

Comments from the Director on the guidance can be read here . This outlines OFFA’s plan to publish its own guidance by the end of February.

Also, OFFA published a note to institutions following the guidance which can be viewed here . 

Key Points
- OFFA guidance due to be published by end of February.
- Institutions must submit their Access Agreements (if they wish to charge over £6,000) to OFFA in early to mid April.
- Decisions returned to institutions by mid July.
- In the guidance to OFFA BIS states that OFFA does not have powers to impose quotas of how many institutions can charge the higher level of fees, but if the sector seems to be clustering towards the upper end of the fee scale BIS will “reconsider what powers are available, including changes the legislation, to ensure there is differentiation in charges”.
- Access Agreements should set out how institutions are going to attract students from under-represented groups.
- Access Agreements should be reviewed annually during the transition to higher fees.
- OFFA should encourage universities to collect and monitor a range of data on applicants as well as admissions.
- Access Agreements will be institution wide, not course specific. Institutions should not list the price limit for every course separately in the Access Agreement, unless they are different for every course. This suggests therefore that the vast majority of institutions will seek to impose a fee level which is applicable to every course rather than have variations of tuition fees for each course.
- No longer an expectation that all institutions should provide bursaries.
Suggested content of Access Agreements
1. Current levels of expenditure on access plus investment from additional income from fees over £6,000.
2. Scale and nature of access projects including a focus on the outcomes of access with targets.
3. Details of institutions procedures to admit students from disadvantaged backgrounds with lower entry requirements.
4. Outline of well targeted bursaries, which ensure the funds for bursaries are not recycled from increased fees.
5. Use of financial waivers.
6. Programme of defined progress each year, within 5 year timeframe.
Enforcement
OFFA can not approve or renew an Access Agreement and can also impose a maximum fine of £500,000 or require compensation if students have been disadvantaged, if institutions do not deliver its access agreement.

National Scholarship Programme (NSP)

BIS has also outlined plans for the NSP which will be available to students beginning HE in Autumn 2012. Further details can be read here .

Key Points
- Government contribution will be £50 m in 2012/13, £100m in 2013/14 and £150m in 2014/15.
- Provisional allocations to institutions will be announced by HEFCE in early March 2011.
- Institutions will decide their own eligibility criteria.
- Institutions will be responsible for making individual awards to students. These awards may include;
Fee waiver or discount
Free foundation year
Discounted accommodation
Financial bursaries capped at £1,000.

Changes to International Student Immigration Rules

The government has released details of proposals to change the current student immigration laws to ensure that that “only genuine students who are committed to their academic study come to the UK, with a presumption that upon completion they will leave promptly.” If these changes are enacted there will be a huge impact on every student. The document with these proposals can be read here .

The key proposals are;

  1. Working Hours:
International students will only be allowed to work on campus during the week and only be allowed to work for external employers during the weekend or holidays.
2. Post Study Work visa to be abolished:
Currently, the Post Study Work visa allows international students to progress from studying in the UK to working in the UK once they have graduated. The proposals are to abolish this visa which will then require students to return to their home country immediately after completing their studies. 

3. Going home to reapply to study in the UK:
If a student wishes to study a further course, they must return to their home country after completing their first course and reapply for an additional visa, with strong evidence that they will be continuing studies on their return to the UK.

4. English Language requirements to be raised:
English language requirements are, under the proposals to be raised and to be standardised so that every course at every institution have to test for this higher requirement. 
There has been much criticism and warnings given to the government that if these proposals are introduced the education sector will suffer as international students pay very high levels of tuition fees and the wider economy will suffer as international students, under these proposals will no longer be able to begin work in the UK after their studies. Detail of a report which has criticised these proposals can be read here .

Student Experience Survey

This week the Times Higher Education (THE) released the results of their annual student experience survey. UCA did not appear on the final table of results, but I suspect this is because universities with less than 30 respondents were not included on the table. Details of the survey with the results can be found here .

NUS

Aaron Porter announced this week that he will not seek re-election for NUS president. You can read his announcement here . He comments that he believes that NUS needs “reinvigorating”. The Guardian has reported that Mark Bergfield, member of the Socialist Workers party, Liam Burns, head of NUS Scotland and Shane Chowen, vice-president for FE have put themselves forward.

Protest

NUS are joining the TUC march on the 26th March from Embankment to Hyde Park. The march entitled ‘March for the Alternative’ is not exclusively about students, but about wider cuts to all public services. Details of the march and rally can be found here .

UCU

UCU (University and College Union) are currently balloting members in the sector in relation to disputes over pay, job security and pensions. NUS’ outline to the ballot can be read here .