Thinking the Unthinkable

With the continuing furore over university tuition fees, and the beggar-my-neighbour suggestions emanating from the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Governments, it is clear that the structure of British higher education needs a radical re-think. It is overly reliant on the support of the state and the state either doesn’t have enough money to adequately fund the sector, or is deliberately choosing to finance other things in preference to higher education. The quality of our best universities continues to rise, but they are struggling to attract adequate funding for undergraduate courses and in any case prefer to fund post-graduate studies and boost their international research ratings. So what’s to be done? Clearly, the impetus for ever higher fees to be charged to students is coming from the Russell Group of our 20 ‘top’ universities, they are the ones most concerned about their international reputation. So here is a suggestion.

Let the Russell Group of universities move into the private sector and charge what they feel the market will bear and compete with the best in the world. However, to ensure equality of opportunity, these private universities must ensure that the brightest and the best are able to attend regardless of their financial circumstances. So the state should insist that the Russell Group universities set up full scholarships to cover both tuition and living expenses for say 30 - 40% of their undergraduate places. These scholarships to be awarded to those potential students with the greatest financial need and biased towards applicants from the state school sector.

For the remaining universities, undergraduate students should have their tuition fees paid by the state and should also be entitled to a maintenance grant of about half their living costs with the balance coming from student loans. In addition, these universities should be encouraged to offer significantly more vocational subjects and more part-time and distance learning routes to a first degree with the emphasis on flexibility and choice of modules and allow such students the opportunity to take a break in their studies if so desired. Part-time students in employment would pay the full fee with their employers being expected to bear a minimum of half the cost of tuition for part-time students in employment. Graduates from state universities should be able to reduce the size of their debt on graduation by contracting to serve as teachers in developing countries for one or two years immediately after graduation and before embarking on their careers or post-graduate study. This would be financed from the overseas aid budget.

Yes, I know I’m suggesting a two tier university system, but this only formalises what is actually happening at the moment, and if we can have the private and public sectors working side by side in primary and secondary education, and in the health service, why not in university education? Above all the emphasis of higher education needs to be redirected towards increasing the quality of those who graduate rather than the number of students as measured by the percentage of school leavers accessing it. It does not make sense for the universities to be continually turning out more and more graduates when the economy is unable to provide them with employment opportunities commensurate with their levels of skills and knowledge.