UK: Cuts will bite in year of transition

This will be a year of transition as universities prepare for radical changes. Cuts and protests lie in store for universities in England as they prepare for reforms in 2012 that will bring a 40% cut in the universities' teaching budget, permit universities to double or - exceptionally - triple fees and encourage the introduction of flexible degrees and new providers.

Although universities will not be allowed to raise fees until September 2012, there will be a 6% reduction in the teaching grant and a 13% cut in science and research funding, from £2.06 billion (US$3.2 billion) in 2010-11 to £1.8 billion in 2011-12.

Tim Melville-Ross (pictured), Chair of The Higher Education Funding Council for England, said: "The funding settlement will be a challenging one for universities and colleges in 2011-12 and also in subsequent years for universities, colleges, students and graduates as the new finance and funding arrangements take effect."

Universities will have to make savings when applications for universities soar as aspiring students seek to secure a place before the introduction of higher fees.

The average rise is 2.5%, according to the university admissions service, UCAS, adding 8,000 applicants to the total as they rush to avoid the introduction of fees next year. Yet, last summer, around 130,000 out of 336,000 applicants were unable to secure a place on a course.

Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, sent a letter to the funding council just before Christmas: They warned that universities and colleges would need in future to become more responsive to the changing demands of students and employers for high level skills and employability to ensure they remained competitive as providers in the new funding environment.

"Two-year degrees, and other intensive forms of degree, offer an attractive option for many students, as does flexibly delivered provision that allows students to achieve higher education qualifications in the workplace," the two ministers wrote.

They also want to see universities enhancing progression opportunities for learners within the further education sector or in employment as apprentices or otherwise.

The ministers expect new providers to enter the sector, and the priority in the long term is to provide choice for students that will be an instrument for driving up quality. To this end the forthcoming White Paper on higher education will discuss proposals to enable universities to respond flexibly to demand.

"Institutions that are chosen by students because they offer better quality, responsiveness and value for money should be able to grow if they wish and - if necessary - at the expense of those who perform less well," the ministers said.

Incentives will be provided to high-performing institutions and improvements will be made in the information made available to prospective students so they can make informed choices between institutions and courses, and can hold institutions to account for the quality and cost-effectiveness of what they provide. This will include pressing for urgent publication of graduate salaries.

Innovative market reforms reportedly being mulled over include the introduction of airline-style pricing, through which late-applying students from EU countries might enjoy cut-price fees for courses that universities are struggling to fill.

Any further proposals, however, are likely to be made against a backdrop of student protests and direct action. While university leaders have offered mixed responses to the reforms made so far - with élite institutions welcoming the ability to charge higher tuition fees and others concerned about the impact on access of loading the costs on to students - there have been widespread and sometimes violent student protests and occupation of university buildings across the country in the past two months.

Aaron Porter, President of the National Union of Students, has issued a rallying call to young people to attend mass demonstrations held with the Trades Union Congress in Manchester at the end of January and a TUC national demonstration in March in Central London's Hyde Park to build opposition to the cuts and funding reforms agenda.

"The savage cuts to the further and higher education sectors, the tripling of tuition fees and the move towards a market-based approach within our universities and colleges are all widely recognised to be profoundly unfair, unsustainable and badly thought out," Porter said. "And, what is worse, this is all against a backdrop of staggeringly high levels of youth unemployment."

A crunch issue is the impact on higher education access of soaring fees from 2012 and the dropping of the Education Maintenance Award which provides £10-£30 a week to 634,000 16-19 year olds from families with incomes less than £21,000 to £31,000 in further education in school sixth forms and colleges, undermining the pathway to higher education.

Ministers say the planned reforms will actually make higher education more accessible to young people from poorer backgrounds because of the introduction of a £150 million national scholarship fund to provide one year or more free higher education to students from poor backgrounds; the progressive system of loan repayment which raises the income threshold for repayment from £15,000 to £21,000; part-time students being entitled to loans for the first time; and because maintenance grants for students from lower income families are being increased to £3,250.

They have argued the maintenance award was inefficiently targeted, claiming that 90% of recipients would have carried on studying without it. But in an admission that it is losing the political argument, the Coalition government has appointed Simon Hughes, deputy leader of the junior partner, the Liberal Democrats, and a critic of the fees and EMA policies, to a new post as advocate for access to higher education.

Whether he can convince students the proposed reforms will support those from disadvantaged families and whether he can convince the government to find a better targeted replacement for the EMA may influence the scale of student protests in the year ahead.

* See Professor Philip Garrahan's observations on the changes in our Commentary section: UK: Silence as the battle for survival begins

brendan.omalley@uw-news.com