UK: Universities hit with huge fines for over-enrolling

New figures reveal for the first time the penalties the Government will impose on individual institutions for exceeding caps on the numbers of students they were allowed to recruit, writes Julie Henry for The Telegraph. One university faces a fine of more than £800,000 (US$1.3 million), while others will pay between £100,000 and £300,000 for taking additional students during the places crisis in the summer, when 160,000 candidates were turned away.

The hefty penalties come on top of swingeing cuts of £915 million across the sector. They will leave institutions doubly cautious of over-recruiting this summer, despite an increase in university applications of nearly 25%.

The fines were condemned last week by the institutions and by opposition politicians who accused the government of failing a generation of young people. They blamed the over-recruitment on the government which originally told institutions they could give places to 15,000 extra students last year. It later dropped this to 10,000 by which time thousands of offers had already been made to students.
Full report on The Telegraph site