Vice-chancellors say maintenance grants should be restored and universities are ‘essential to economic growth’.
According to the leaders of the UK’s universities, ministers should aim for 70% of youngsters to further their studies after leaving school by 2040, and tuition fees in England should be raised.
Universities UK (UUK) published the “blueprint for change, ” representing what vice-chancellors want. The blueprint calls for the 70% target to be backed by grants paid to less privileged students and a new “tertiary education opportunity fund” for places with low university and college takeup rates.
The blueprint makes a string of other suggestions, including a plea for the government to restore financial stability for universities by stopping attacks on international student numbers and boosting funding for teaching and research.
In return, universities would dedicate themselves to a “transformative” efficiency drive and work more closely with local leaders and businesses to contribute massively to regional growth.
The government is said to be working on raising tuition fees in England with inflation and restoring maintenance grants; however, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will have to approve the final decision.
UUK’s president and vice-chancellor of the University of St Andrews, Prof Sally Mapstone, stated: “Universities are essential to economic growth. For every £1 spent on them, the government makes £14.
“But we face a choice. We can take the path that leads to better and stronger universities, delivering on the new government’s missions, and doing more to open up opportunities to a broader range of people, or we can let them slide into decline.”
The report from UUK was released 25 years after Tony Blair urged that half of Britain’s youth pursue higher education by the time they are 30 years old. This goal was accomplished before 2020. However, one of the blueprint’s authors, Prof. Nick Pearce of the University of Bath, stated that all postsecondary education below the degree level should be added to the new 70% participation objective for young people in England.
Pearce’s chapter focuses on improving the workforce’s skills by promoting enrollment in level three programs like A-levels or BTECs and level six bachelor’s degrees.
Pearce stated: “This is not a ‘university’ participation target; it is one that would expand participation in all forms of education at level four and above, for example on sub-degree courses, such as higher national diplomas.”
“In the future, expansion should focus on tertiary education, with opportunities opened up across the country, maintenance grants should be restored, and better support made available to students with mental health and other needs.”
The general secretary of the University and College Union, Jo Grady, stated: “Universities UK is right to call for more government investment, but this must come alongside a wholesale review of the current funding model.
“The tuition fee system has seen some universities hoover up students at the expense of their neighbours and allowed vice-chancellors to act like reckless chief executives. A publicly funded system, backed by a levy on big business, would end the feast-or-famine admissions free-for-all, distribute funding more evenly, and help create a much more sustainable sector.”
The contributions include chapters by Conservative peer David Willetts, who advocates for “well managed” international student recruitment restricted by local capacity, and by Labour peer Peter Mandelson, who focuses on research and innovation. He also calls for removing student visa holders from headline migration statistics.
According to Willetts, the international standing of UK institutions is being viewed “through an increasingly narrow lens of international student recruitment,” which has resulted in instability and limitations that have sharply decreased the number of enrolments from outside the country this year.
Meanwhile, Willetts claimed that the UK’s capacity to attract global talent had been undermined by the “increasingly politicized” debate and skyrocketing visa fees for hiring skilled employees.
UUK’s proposal includes an agreement between universities and the government to acknowledge “public concern about immigration” in exchange for reevaluating the recent prohibition on many international students bringing dependents and officially classifying migration as either temporary or permanent.
Willetrs’s chapter advocates for “placing greater policy emphasis on the numbers granted indefinite leave to remain [in the UK], rather than blunt and volatile measures of annual net migration that have led to unhelpful, short-term interventions”.
A spokesperson for the DfE stated: “We will create a secure future for our world-leading universities as engines of growth and opportunity so they can deliver for students, local communities and the economy.
“We have inherited a challenging set of circumstances in higher education. The education secretary has taken the crucial first step of refocusing the role of the Office for Students on key areas such as monitoring financial sustainability, to ensure universities can secure their financial health in the longer term.”
