University elite forced to take fixed quotas of state pupils

Leading universities will be forced to take fixed quotas of students from state schools in exchange for the power to charge tuition fees of £9,000, under Coalition plans.

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, ordered a government watchdog to "focus more sharply" on institutions, such as Oxford and Cambridge, that have struggled to increase the proportion of places they give to working-class candidates.

He told Sir Martin Harris, the Director of Fair Access, to set targets for individual universities and said they could include benchmarks for "the percentage of students admitted from state schools or colleges".

Any university that failed to do enough to meet its targets could be stripped of the power to charge fees above the basic level of £6,000. Serious breaches of an agreement between Sir Martin and a university could see institutions fined up to £500,000, the minister said.

Private school head teachers condemned the proposed measure as...

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Students turning to two-year foundation degrees

More students are turning to two-year university degrees in the economic downturn, figures show.

The number of undergraduates gaining “foundation” degrees soared by almost a third last year, it was revealed.

Figures showed 24,865 students completed a short degree course in 2010 compared with 18,850 in 2009 and just 9,275 five years ago.

The disclosure suggests that students are increasingly seeing foundation degrees – which take two years to complete and combine academic study with work-based tuition – as a cheaper alternative to traditional undergraduate courses.

Many students also favour them because they can often lead directly to a job.

It follows claims from David Willets, the Universities Minister, that growing numbers of young people should seek alternatives to...

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Can you get a refund if university fails to deliver?

Increased tuition fees are likely to result in more students claiming compensation when courses are not up to standard.

Courses that are sub-standard, lecturers who don't turn up, supervision that doesn't materialise ... now that students will be paying up to £9,000 a year, will they be able to demand their money back if university fails to deliver?
If a product doesn't live up to expectations, if it's not of merchantable quality, then consumers have rights to ask for their money back under the Sale of Goods Act. But what if you are paying for a course that didn't live up to expectations? Already, officials in the university sector are preparing for an increase in complaints from heavily-indebted consumers of education who feel they didn't get what was promised.

First, it's important to remember that students are not buying a degree. They pay for services and facilities (tuition, libraries) which enable them to study and complete a course to...

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Clegg defends Liberal Democrats' role in coalition

Nick Clegg has defended the Liberal Democrats' role in coalition government as his party remains under fire over controversial education proposals.

He told the Independent on Sunday that he had no regrets about forming a government with the Conservatives.

He said: "I'm absolutely convinced that almost any other course of action would have been a disaster for the country."

MPs vote this Thursday on university tuition fees. The Lib Dems had opposed higher fees before entering government.

The party has been the focus of some of the protests in recent weeks involving tens of thousands of students opposed to the coalition government's proposals.

Despite the current difficulties facing his party, Mr Clegg believes their participation in government will lead to an...

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18-year-old student arrested - University Protests

Police have arrested an 18-year-old college student in connection with the throwing of a fire extinguisher at police from the roof of Conservative Party headquarters.

The man, believed to be the long-haired protester pictured in photographs released by police yesterday, was arrested in Southampton by Scotland Yard officers on Monday night. He was transferred to London on Tuesday for formal questioning.

The canister landed inches away from a group of police officers 70ft below. One officer admitted had it hit him "somebody would have been visiting my wife and children and saying either I was dead, or very, very seriously injured"...

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Lord Browne: Universities warned to expect £4.2bn cuts

Universities UK claims tuition fees proposals confirmed the fear of massive cuts. Universities in England are being warned to expect an 80% cut to their teaching budgets in next week's government spending review. The president of the vice chancellors group Universities UK Steve Smith has contacted all higher education institutions informing them to expect a likely £4.2bn cut to their teaching and a £1bn reduction in their research budgets.

This echoes Lord Browne's review of funding which was published last week, said that he see's the teaching budget dropping to £700 million per year also he said degrees in medicine, science, engineering and modern languages could stop receiving subsidies.

Also he said Universities will have to start charging around £7,000 per year in fees to maintain the current levels of investment.

Read the full article here.

Schools turning into exam factories

Private schools are being turned into “exam factories” from pressure being applied by pushy parents to produce the best results.

The teachers are being put under pressure by families to deliver top grades to boost their children’s chances getting into the top universities.

Research authorised by the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, which represents 250 leading independent schools, said the focus on GCSE and A-level preparation “compromised” their ability to deliver sport, expeditions and school trips for final year pupils.

The study from HMC’s annual meeting in central London – said pressure from parents and universities produced a “vicious circle” that constrained schools’ abilities to provide a broad education and teach children to think independently.

It said many schools were “risk averse and lacked the courage to actively create the curriculum” that most teachers wanted to deliver.

The disclosure follows claims from Gary Lineker, the BBC presenter and former England football captain, that Charterhouse treated his son as a “guinea pig'' by ditching A-levels in favour of new-style exams. George Lineker, 18, failed to obtain the three B grades needed to get into Manchester University after the fee-paying school in Surrey switched to the tougher Cambridge Pre-U qualification.

Article extracted from Telegraph