Member Article

Higher Education must be protected, says IPPR

Higher education’s contribution to the UK economy must be safeguarded by reforms, according to a report from think tank, IPPR.

Next month’s Government Spending Review is expected to outline dramatic cuts for the higher education (HE) sector, with further cuts anticipated by IPPR after the next election.

The report from IPPR’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education outlines a number of reforms they say must be made to protect HE’s “critical contribution…to economic prosperity and social justice in England.”

One key suggestion was to create a £5,000 “fee only” tuition fee for students living at home or holding a part time job.

Such students would not be eligible for maintenance grants and loans, and so would pay a lower tuition fee.

IPPR said such a measure would save the Government £10,000 per student and allow for low-cost expansion of the HE sector with up to 20,000 extra students.

Additional recommendations were made to stabilize the proportion of 18-21 year olds going to university on full cost courses, meaning that £1.5bn-£3bn could be saved over the next seven years because of what IPPR called a “natural decline” in the number of 18 year olds in the population.

The think tank also said the ‘teaching grant’ should be held flat in cash terms to save £104m, and the £9,000 maximum tuition fee should not rise with inflation.

Continued cash ring fencing for the science and research budget was also included within IPPR’s recommendations.

Nigel Thrift, chair of IPPR’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education and vice chancellor of Warwick University, commented: “Higher education has to play its part and find its fair share of deficit reduction but we should not let the work universities and colleges do in driving economic prosperity be swept away by an avalanche of austerity.

“We are going to need to make major cost savings in the short-term, as well as grapple with longer-term arguments about the future of fees.

“The only way we will be able to afford to expand the number of students is if we offer a new type of degree.”

Rules for international students were also under scrutiny in the report, and it suggested they should be removed from the Government’s net migration target and post-study work opportunities should be brought in line with the UK’s international rivals.

The Commission said such a measure would allow universities to raise more funds from international students, while the Government should stop making reputation-damaging changes to the system.

IPPR projected a cut of £1.2bn to HE over the next Parliamentary session, which is almost a reduction of 33%.

The report said that if its recommendations are taken together, the Government could protect spending on science and research, widen participation in next month’s Spending Review and return to real term increases in science funding by 2017/18.

It is argued in the report that the immediate challenge is overcoming hurdles created by deep austerity cuts whilst not damaging the HE sector, which it called one of the nation’s most precious assets.

Mr Thrift continued: “The current funding system privileges full-time residential courses supported by student loans. But this is not appropriate for many potential students, who want to study vocational courses in their local area, live at home and combine their studies with paid employment.

“So universities and colleges should be able to offer a new £5,000 fee degree, focused on vocational learning and offered to local students who would be eligible for fee loans but not maintenance loans or grants.”

While these suggestions are for the short-term, further recommendations were made to bolster the HE sector with a long-term view.

Five different options to bring about change were outlined in IPPR’s review, although it was emphasised that none of these measures would save money in the short-term.

Long-term options included; raising the top rate of interest on student loans to 4.5 per cent; lowering the maximum tuition fee to £6,000, while increasing direct government support for university teaching; lowering the maximum tuition fee to £6,000 funded by changes to the terms of student loans; funding tuition through a mixture of student loans and means-tested family contributions or introducing a graduate tax.

The final report of IPPR’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education will be published on 10th June.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .