Any government, especially a coalition, will shirk responsibility for its decisions when it can lest it be saddled with something that it can’t shift come coalition-meltdown and fresh elections.

The tired mantra of the free market is a trusty friend at such a time. It has never been proven either way that this causes a rise in quality. Intuitively, it just sounds good especially when the media do little more than lap up press releases and reshape them as their own.

The fact that this new development in free market innovations comes at a time when it’s now known that other privatisations (gas, water, electricity etc) have not lead to the expected number of positive improvements and the fact that costs never really seem to fall (IT projects, rail privatisation etc).

This is evidently not important to UK journalists. It is lucky that others are around to do their job properly.

Despite the fact that all the middle-aged people working at UK universitities didn’t pay a penny towards their own education, they seem ready to expect the younger generation to foot the bill so that they can retire early, tend to the garden and holiday overseas.

What the young need is someone who represents their interest. Not Clegg, who is ready to do any deal to appear important. What is needed, instead, is someone ready to unite the young behind issues that are of concern to them, including of course the disgrace that are tuition fees.

Other countries may have expect students to pay for their education via fees and loans but these are lower-tax countries where property is cheaper.

Young Brits have nothing to look forward to apart from high taxes, low wages, no property ownership and interminable loan repayments.

This will become all the more galling when they discover that they’re simply paying to maintain the living standards (and property prices) of those older than them.

This is a national disgrace. And one that does not bode well for the social fabric of the UK.

http://hereview.independent.gov.uk/hereview/

What a joke!

Lord Browne-nose, how about explaining why students whose parents have paid taxes all their lives now face fronting up more cash so their kid can go to university? And how about explaining why kids with high grades should pay fees and loans so that other less able students can get a degree?

Fewer state pupils at Oxford – The Independent

Fewer state school pupils gain Oxford places even though more apply – The Times

Or, alternatively,…

Majority of ’state’ pupils at Oxford (still under-represented) will have gone to selective schools in middle-class areas and not to inner-city comprehensives – EducationState


Without mandatory quotas, Oxbridge colleges will do nothing – EducationState

True to form, an organisation that no-one has ever heard of – Association of Graduate Recruiters – calls for radical changes designed to make the world a better place and then hopes that its members notice that their fees are being used wisely and a few days later the whole thing is forgotten, memberships subscription hikes not questioned and silence until the same time next year.

We found it ironic that the AGR were calling for greater contributions from families and individuals when the vast majority of its board members work either for known tax avoiders or those who facilitate such avoidance.

Rather than asking penniless students and their families to stump up the cash why don’t they do so instead?

“Greetings,
I appreciate your dedication to higher ed and enjoy your blogs. I too love higher ed and have launched a new website www.campusleftovers.com. The website is free for everyone to use and is comparable to a “craigslist” for higher ed. Some unviersities have begun to use it in correlation with their sustainaility and go green practices. I encourage you to look and let me know what you think. I truly believe it can benefit all students and institutions. Educated Shopping!

Thanks,
Tyson”

In today’s Guardian it is reported that, “Students will name and shame MPs who refuse to oppose rise in tuition fee”. Now modern-day students are not known for their radicalism and long gone are the days of manning barricades and calling for revolution but if there is one issue that will get a student worked up more than any other then that is money…or lack of!

To have announced a tuition fees review a few months or so short of an election beggars belief. Students make up a pretty significant minority and no better way to politicise them before an election than to have them worry about whether they’ll be able to afford next year’s must-have items when they might have to cough up much more for fees.

By naming and shaming the NUS is now doing what a proper union should. That is, making it’s members’ voices heard and applying real pressure on the current Government, and long may it continue.

Lord John Browne

John Browne was born in 1948. He joined BP in 1966 as a university apprentice. He holds a degree in Physics from Cambridge University and a MS Business from Stanford University, California. He is President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Royal Society and The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has numerous honorary degrees, fellowships and awards.

He joined the Board of BP in 1992 and became its Group Chief Executive in 1995 until 2007. He has been the Chairman of the Advisory Board of Apax Partners LLC (2006-7), non-executive director of Intel (1997-2006), DaimlerChrysler AG (1996-2001), Goldman Sachs (1997-2007) and SmithKline Beecham (1996-1999). He was voted Most Admired CEO by Management Today from 1999 -2002. He was knighted in 1998 and made a life peer in 2001.

He is presently a Managing Director of Riverstone Holdings LLC, a company which invests in renewable and conventional energy. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Tate, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Chairman of the advisory Board of the Cambridge Judge Business School, and a member of a variety of advisory boards.

Sir Michael Barber

Sir Michael Barber is head of McKinsey’s Global Education Practice and Founder of the Education Delivery Institute in Washington, D.C. which advises governments in the US on implementation of reform in higher education and school systems. He works on major challenges of performance, organisation and reform in government and the public services, especially education, around the world. He is co-author of the widely-read international benchmarking study “How the World’s Best Performing School Systems Come Out on Top.”

Prior to joining McKinsey he was (from 2001) Chief Adviser on Delivery to the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. As Head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit he was responsible for the oversight of implementation of the Prime Minister’s priority programmes in health, education, transport, policing, the criminal justice system and asylum/immigration.

The approach to delivery he developed is widely seen as constructive and innovative. His book about this experience – Instruction to Deliver: Fighting to Reform Britain’s Public Services (Methuen 2008) – was described by the Financial Times as “one of the best books about British Government for many years.”

Between 1997 and 2001, he was Chief Adviser to the Secretary of State for Education on School Standards. Prior to joining government he was a Professor at the Institute of Education, University of London.

His other major publications include The Learning Game: Arguments for an Education Revolution (Indigo 1997), The Virtue of Accountability (Boston University 2005) and Impossible & Necessary: Are You Ready for This (Nesta, July 2009).

His advice on public policy, especially education, has been sought by governments in over 30 countries including the USA, Chile, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore and Australia and by major international organisations including the OECD, The World Bank and the IMF. He is an Honorary Doctor at the Universities of Exeter, Nottingham Trent and Wolverhampton and a Visiting Professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.

Diane Coyle runs the consultancy Enlightenment Economics. She is a BBC Trustee and member of the Migration Advisory Committee, and was for eight years a member of the Competition Commission (until September 2009). She is also visiting professor at the University of Manchester.

She specialises in competition analysis and the economics of new technologies and globalisation, including extensive work on the impacts of mobile telephony in developing countries.

Diane is also a member of the advisory board of ING Direct UK and of the stakeholder advisory panel of EDF Energy, and a member of the advisory council of the think tank Demos.

She is the author of several books, including The Soulful Science (Princeton University Press 2007), Sex, Drugs and Economics (2002, Texere), Paradoxes of Prosperity (2001, Texere), Governing the World Economy (2000, Polity) and The Weightless World (1997, Capstone/MIT Press), all translated into many languages. She has also published numerous book chapters, reports and articles, and was formerly a regular presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Analysis. She is currently working on a new book to be published by Princeton University Press in 2010.

She was previously Economics Editor of The Independent and before that worked at the Treasury and in the private sector as an economist. She has a PhD from Harvard.

Diane was awarded the OBE in January 2009.

Professor David Eastwood

Professor Eastwood became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham in April 2009. He was previously Chief Executive at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), a post he had held since September 2006. Former posts include Vice-Chancellor at the University of East Anglia, and Chief Executive of the Arts and Humanities Research Board.

Professor Eastwood held a chair in Modern History at the University of Wales, Swansea, where he was also a Head of Department, Dean, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor. Whilst at Swansea he co-founded the National Centre for Public Policy.

He was Fellow and Senior Tutor of Pembroke College (1988–1995) and is now an Honorary Fellow of both St Peter’s College, Oxford, from where he graduated in 1980, and Keble College, Oxford, where he was a Research Fellow from 1983 to 1987.

Professor Eastwood has served on numerous national bodies and committees, including membership of the Research Support Libraries Group 2002-03, the Roberts Review of the Research Assessment Exercise, the Tomlinson Group on 14-19 Education 2003-04, the Advisory Board of the Higher Education Policy Institute, the Councils of the John Innes Centre and the Sainsbury Laboratory, and the Board of the Quality Assurance Agency. He has chaired the 1994 Group of Universities, UUK’s Longer Term Strategy Group, and the Association of the Universities of the East of England. He also chaired the Westminster Education Commission in 2009.

He is currently Chair of Supporting Professionalism in Admissions (SPA), a Director of Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), a Board member of Universities UK (UUK) and Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Higher Education Policy Institute, and Commissioner and Deputy Chair for the Marshall Aid Commemoration Committee.

Since 1991 Professor Eastwood has been a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, serving as its Literary Director 1994–2000 and as Chair of its Studies in History Board 2000–04.

Professor Eastwood is married with three children. He enjoys music, politics, walking, sport and good wine; and includes writing on football amongst his extensive list of publications.

Julia King

After sixteen years as an academic researcher and university lecturer at Cambridge and Nottingham universities, Julia King joined Rolls-Royce plc in 1994. At Rolls-Royce she held a number of senior executive appointments, including Director of Advanced Engineering for the Industrial Power Group, Managing Director of the Fan Systems Business, and Engineering Director for the Marine Business. In 2002 Julia became Chief Executive of the Institute of Physics, and in 2004 she returned to academia as Principal of the Engineering Faculty at Imperial College, London. In December 2006 she became Vice-Chancellor of Aston University.

Throughout her career Julia has held a number of senior public appointments and has continued to support universities and voluntary bodies in various roles. She works closely with Government as a member of the Management Board of the Department for Business Innovation & Skills, the Committee on Climate Change, and the National Security Forum. She spent four years advising the Ministry of Defence as Chair of the Defence Scientific Advisory Council, and five years as a non-executive member of the Technology Strategy Board. She is a member of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Transportation. She led a Royal Academy of Engineering Working Party on ‘Educating Engineers for the 21st Century’ which published its final report in June 2007, and plays an active role in encouraging women and young people to go into science and engineering-based careers.

Julia was appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in March 2007 to lead the ‘King Review’ to examine the vehicle and fuel technologies that, over the next 25 years, could help to reduce carbon emissions from road transport. The interim analytical report was published in October 2007, and the final recommendations in March 2008.

Julia has published over 160 papers on fatigue and fracture in structural materials and developments in aerospace and marine propulsion technology. Her research has been recognised through the award of the Grunfeld, Bengough and Kelvin medals. In 1997 she was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering and was made a CBE for ‘Services to Materials Engineering’ in July 1999. She is a Liveryman of the Goldsmiths’ Company, an Honorary Graduate of Queen Mary, London, and an Honorary Fellow of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, and of Cardiff University.

Peter Sands joined the Board of Standard Chartered PLC as Group Finance Director on 14 May 2002 and was appointed as Group Chief Executive on 20 November 2006. Before his appointment as Group Chief Executive he was responsible for Finance, Strategy, Risk and Technology and Operations. Prior to this, Peter was a Director with worldwide consultants McKinsey & Co.

Peter had been with McKinsey since 1988 where he worked extensively in the banking and technology sectors in a wide range of international markets. He was elected a partner of McKinsey in 1996 and became a Director in 2000.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Peter worked for the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Peter graduated from Oxford University and holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, where he was a Harkness Fellow.

Rajay Naik

Rajay Naik is a UK Board Member of the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) – the largest National Lottery grants distributor which has allocated £2.5 billion to people and communities most in need since 2004. He is also a Commissioner of the Standing Commission on Carers – launched by the Prime Minister in 2007 to advise Ministers on supporting the United Kingdom’s six million carers and implementing the National Strategy.

Rajay is a renowned expert on policy and programs relating to young people currently supporting their engagement within local government. He previously worked on policy at the Office of the Third Sector and at the Royal Society of Arts, where he managed the Coffeehouse Challenge. Rajay is a former Chair of the BYC, and Trustee of the National Youth Agency and the national volunteering organisation, v. He was also a Council Member of the Learning and Skills Council and an Executive Council Member of the English Secondary Students Association. Rajay currently continues to serve as a College Governor at City College, Coventry and as a Trustee of the Changemakers Foundation.

In 2006 Rajay was commissioned by NESTA as co-author of ‘Learner Voice’ which was met with high acclaim from the education sector. In 2007 he was the United Kingdom’s youth delegate at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, Uganda. Rajay is an ambassador of Make Your Mark, and the city of Coventry.

Apart from the usual array of acronyms and name-dropping, we are struck by the upper age range of these people. Of course, it is possible that these people can be sympathetic to the needs of young people but would you choose them to represent the voices of students? No. Do any of them have a background in Education Studies research? No. Do they on the whole come from business management backgrounds? Yes. Does this mean that they will be expected to be more sympathetic to financial accounts and unit costs than people? Yes. Should people without any recent experience of student life make decisions on this very issue? No. Are they anything more than Government patsies that’ll do what they’re told for future posts? No. Shouldn’t the Government stop wasting taxpayer money by scrapping the review system and finally take full responsibility for their policy decisions? Er, yes.

First-past-the-post, minority-rule, ‘representative’ democracy at its sleazy worst.

A farce already. The appointments do not include anyone whose income will be harmed come the inevitable hike in fees. In fact, the review panel is so unbalanced and skewed in favour of business and academic institutions that it is sad that NuLab don’t even bother to do more to legitimise what they’re doing. And the people on the committee so dependent on their largesse will hardly go against them for fear of missing out on future positions of symbolic power and influence. We know what happens to those who turn Judas now don’t we Prof Nutt and friends?

Anyway, it’s such a joke that to call it a review is an insult to our intelligence. It’s nothing more than another exercise in rubber-stamping what the Government want. They want future students to pay more for the education of others, and they want them to pay for it RIGHT NOW not as in other countries where graduate taxes operate. No, you will PAY NOW.

Why? Because those in HE want to maintain their current living standards and research funding and the Government won’t let them have the money based on future tax receipts. In effect, the Government is admitting that many future graduates will not be profitable enough and so can’t be expected to make enough money to pay it all back (with interest!). More importantly, no-one really cares about young people anymore. They see them as pension providers and work horses not persons in their own right. If they did, they wouldn’t saddled with debt when they’ve not even started work.

If NuLab came to their senses about widening participation they’d see that it is the poor who are in fact losing out. So committed to an outdated manifesto pledge from Bliar’s days, they refuse like children to concede that it’s not working. UK PLC will increasingly look like India PLC where there are too many recently-qualified professionals and not enough people to do the more menial but still important technical jobs.

The answer to all of this is the scrapping of tuition fees altogether, grants for the poor and loans for everyone else but nothing for the super-rich as we don’t want them investing their student loans every year now do we. When will the Government finally realise that anyone from a poorer background who wishes to be a doctor or dentist, for eg, will face a debt mountain that will be commensurate to or be greater than a year’s family household income?

And, aren’t these changes and the rebirth of Toff Toryism signs that the privileged minority is making a comeback and the poor are paying the price?

UK Universities report, produced for Universities UK by Ursula Kelly, Donald McLellan and Emeritus Professor Iain McNicoll of the University of Strathclyde, attempts to show how profitable and integral the university ‘industry’ is. Apparently, “through both direct and secondary or multiplier effects this generated over £59 billion of output and over 668,500 full time equivalent jobs throughout the economy.”

The report has a section on methodology so we thought we’d take a look and see how they came to such a figure:

Methodology and data sources

The model used was a purpose designed and specially constructed ‘type II’ input-output model based on actual UK data derived from the Office of National Statistics’ input-output tables (2006) together with data from its ‘Blue Book’ (2008). Data on university finance, staffing and students were obtained from HESA. Other data sources included Travel trends (Office of National Statistics) and a student expenditure survey (2009), published by the former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, as well as the Labour Force Survey and Annual Business Inquiry.”

This methodology doesn’t seem too unusual although the fact “the off-campus expenditure of UK domiciled students was excluded”will ring alarm bells. Not sure either what we are to make of: “this may not be regarded as additional to the UK economy as a whole.”

Even if benefit of the doubt is given, however, the more serious point about these reports commissioned by self-interested, pressure groups like UK Universities is that they will always be suspected of manipulating the data to suit their own agenda. In this case, UK Universities is run to promote the interests of university executives (‘Universities UK is the major representative body and membership organisation for the higher education sector. Our members are the executive heads of UK universities.’). Whatever they are motivated by – promoting their employers, furthering their careers, making money – they would not seem to prioritise the interests of academics, students or support staff.

As a result of this, it is fairer to say that pressure group surveys and reports tell us more about how competing education interests operate in the UK today than what, for example, the real impact of universities is.