Am I the only one to watch the most recent plans for HE unfurl with utter horror?
As reported on the BBC News Website
First the government removed almost all funding from HEIs and brought in full fees. Of 6k and above. Then after the uproar about exclusion of students from lower income families, HEIs were told they had to provide x amount of bursaries. The only way that HEIs could provide bursaries, with no funding, is to charge the other students more, so lots of HEIs set high or maximum fees.
Realising that they were going to have to pay out millions more in loans that anticipated, the goverment suggested that people who were prepared to pay more could buy their way onto courses.
Now we have them suggesting private companies and "more room for expansion for those universities willing to charge lower fees of around £6,000 per year" when the only reason more HEIs aren't doing that already is because they were ordered to provide more bursaries!!!
The report also states a lot of things as new, which actually happen already...
Universities will have to publish information about students' employment chances and salaries
They already do!
Inspections triggered if concerns raised about teaching standards
They are already audited and checked by the QAA, HEFCE and other bodies
Student charter setting out consumer rights
Almost all HEIs have one of these already!
Universities compete for proportion of places
already happens.
How about good Higher Education for everyone who wants in? How about investing in the good institutions that exist already, instead of trying to get around the mess of fees that they have caused themselves instead of trying to get someone else to do it on the cheap?
Its madness!