Toni Pearce as President of the NUS began by stating that: “I think we do need a new deal for universities”.
She said the current HE funding system isn’t working and that current estimates suggest 45% of student debt won’t be paid back. She said students would be paying twice because they have their student debt and then their own share in the student loan black hole.
She said that five years on from the Browne review, it was frustrating that we were still asking questions about HE funding, and she predicted that the next big access challenge would be post graduate funding and access for young people without parents who are able to support them to get access to post graduate courses.
She said that the average cost of living for students is not being addressed and that international students are not being properly recognised. She added that overseas students: “contribute economically, socially and culturally and we need policies that really recognise that”.
Ms Pearce called for a Higher Education bill in the first term of the next parliament and she hoped it would move away from the £9,000 fee model.
Prof Michael Gunn on behalf of Million+ said he was delighted to share a panel with Toni Pearce from the NUS and Greg Clark MP, as the new Universities minister. He also paid tribute to David Willetts.
He was pleased with the Chancellor’s decision to ring-fence the Science and Innovation budget, but he said that still implied a real terms cut. He also pointed out the cuts in post graduate funding and asked Greg Clark and Eric Ollerenshaw if a future government will further increase tuition fees and if a future Conservative government would pledge to remove overseas students from migration statistics.
He said far too much funding goes to 12 UK institutions, and he added that these universities are not the ones which educate the majority of our nation’s graduates.
Professor Gunn said we had world class universities in the UK and a world class university system, but he was critical of the fact that 50% of state funding goes to just 12 institutions and 20% of it going to just 5 universities. This he argued “under values research and creates huge inequity in the system”.
“We believe a Conservative government will have to deliver a fairer university research funding system and we call on them to match Labour’s commitment to take overseas students out of migrations figures”.
He concluded by saying the UK needed to look at the compliance regimes of the visa and immigration system to encourage overseas students to come to Britain to study and to make the process smoother.
He also said that taxpayers get a good return on investment in higher education with 11% return for every £1 spent on higher education.
“I am passionate about this and hope you will join me in promoting all universities. I hope all universities will be equally valued and that we won’t see a two tier system.”
Greg Clark, the universities minister, began by talking about the importance of universities in transforming the regional economy and added “indispensable role of universities in growth” and said that all UK universities are integral to the towns and cities they are in.
He said that when A-level results were published for the first time ever we saw half a million students going to university, with 8% more this year from disadvantaged backgrounds.
He added that having grown up in the North East he was always conscious that many of his classmates didn’t stay on to do A-levels let alone go onto university.
He added the there was still an unfairness in the UK. For example, 60% of young people living in Ruislip go on to university but only 26% in Middlesbrough and 16% in Nottingham North.
He said that we need to find all young people with the talent to go to university to go to university if they would like to. He mentioned the importance of the Robins principle that there is now a place for every single student to go if they are qualified.
He said that recent OECD figures showed the UK is one of the few countries which had got it right with higher education offering an excellent opportunity for each young person and for the wider economy too.
He concluded by saying that much progress had been, made but that more progress was needed on widening participation and that this was often down to improving early years schools teaching.
He agreed that there should be improvement to post graduate study opportunities and as UK research continues to improve that all talented students should be able to benefit from this.
Finally he said that recruitment of overseas students was hugely important and that the UK was currently second in terms of global overseas students. He said he would shortly be going to India with UK Vice Chancellors to wave the flag for UK higher education and that other colleagues would be doing the same thing in China.
Eric Ollerenshaw MP said that as a North West MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood he was incredibly grateful to the government which has just given £17 million to Lancaster University. He added like many towns and cities Lancaster had 2 universities, with the biggest campus of Cumbria University also in his constituency. He is very clear about the huge value of having Lancaster University in his constituency:
“Lancaster is an 18th century town and if that university had not been put there I’m not sure what would be left”.
He added that local employment and businesses all revolve around the university.
He said that Lancaster University was full and that he had regular meetings with the Vice Chancellor. In his capacity as a member of the APPG on social mobility he was passionate about getting more people from poorer backgrounds into university and this involved working with school teachers too, and he added he used to be a school teacher himself.
Mr Ollerenshaw added that he still wanted universities to provide more back up to local communities because there is still a ‘town and gown divide’ in many areas, but that he was very pleased David Willetts had brought in some Enterprise Zones on university campuses.
He added that all universities could do more to use their overseas alumni contacts to help their current students develop business links and to keep the link going between these successful students and their UK alumni.
On the topic of overseas students, Greg Clark said: “There is no cap on students from overseas coming to this country. Any university can go and recruit students and know that they will be welcomed here. We positively encourage it”
Whilst Mr Ollerenshaw said: “Personally I have never understood why foreign students were included in the immigration figures.”
On University Enterprise Zones (UEZs), Greg Clark said these had been a success but that we needed to improve on them and increase them. He also disagreed with a town and gown divide and added:
“Each of the 39 local enterprise zones has a University Vice Chancellor on its board”.