Russell Group unable to fill university places

[creamteas]

The combination of the higher fees and the introduction of the AAB rule has had been a disaster even for the elite. see here

Good news though for those applying this year, offers are likely to be lower than before from the RG downwards

The data will be publicly available around Easter 2014! Universities don't yet know their definite intake numbers - we have to have estimates in at Christmas. The outcomes for the current academic year (which finishes next summer) have to be sent in by next October and it takes several months for all this data from the whole sector to be analysed an published.

So don't hold your breath!

Early on in this thread CopthallResident referred to this article:
"Last week the University of Southampton, a member of the elite Russell Group, revealed that it was 600 students down on last year, having failed to recruit enough AAB students. In an email to all staff, the vice-chancellor, Don Nutbeam, described this as "a wake-up call for the entire university community".

It's of interest to me as my DS has Southampton on his uni shortlist.
The Uni response to their problems this year has been to raise the standard offer for his course from AAA to A*AA
I hadn't expected that!

I was at Southampton when they took 1700 undergrads a year
in the boom years they rose to 5000
it will do the place no harm to drop back to 3,000
it will certainly make the second year room rental options a lot better

600 on an intake of up to 5000 is trivial in the big scheme of things
the place was heaving with early arrival overseas students when I popped into the Union shop the other day.

I have no idea what happens with an undershoot, but any university who faces an overshoot on their target number faces an enormous fine. Universities are supposed to hit their target number within a very tight margin above/below.

Plus 600 students is probably equivalent to 50-60 members of staff. No university copes well, maintains its research reputation, morale etc, losing academics in such numbers. I don't think the RG should be protected at all costs but make no mistake that this will be devastating for some universities.

wilf
what makes you think that about staff?
Most of the faculty at RG Universities are paid for their research (the RG comprises the top research universities after all)
if the grant funding is still coming in, the teaching numbers are practically a side show - they will just take more late admission students or part timers or (the right thing) drop back to a sensible size
which has been the governments plan all along - to reduce the number of undergrads it has to pay for

Yeah sure they don't need to but the RC funding is not increasing either, certainly in Humanities and Social Sciences so will get much more competitive in terms of research income. I'm still not sure even a highly research active university could lose that chunk of income easily.

Talkin actually the amount of block grant that universities receive to pay for research usually only covers infrastructure (lab equipment etc) not salaries even at RG unis.

Research active staff bid for research grant money, and this is what pays for their teaching replacement costs. So universities are still paying staff salaries.

If the university massively under recruits, and doesn't have enough reserve, then they have two options. Either they make staff redundant or they cut back on the amount if teaching-replacement that are bought in (and you have to carry a big teaching load as well as do contracted research).

My non RG university has student numbers higher than the last few years and did not drop the points score at clearing. We have benefited from the AAB students as we tend to be an insurance offer institution and have also filled almost all of our courses. We went in to clearing with only 100 places available for full time students.

Now I have the problem of staffing classes!

Talkinpeace - ref 2nd year room rentals - Southampton has a policy of allowing all overseas students to stay in Uni halls for their entire degree. As a result, virtually all the UK undergrads have to move into rented accom not just for the second year but also for the final year

I used own a house in the Polygon - tell me about it.

DD is off to Soton, and has been twinned in halls for the first few weeks, does this mean she might not have to share?

Which hall, which block?
I'm not fully up to date but as DH is a Faculty Visitor, am reasonably up to speed ...

Talkin, you have mail.

:-)

Justgetting
what will change the rental market in this town is the dropping numbers at Solent.