Welfare Reform on the Web (February 2009): Education - UK - higher

Review of HE finance and pay data

Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff

2008

Reports that, although most higher education institutions are financially stable in the short term, their levels of surplus and investment are too low to assure a sustainable future. They are facing new financial challenges and risks that are threatening their ability to innovate and advance as fast as some overseas competitors. The report highlights three short-term risks to institutions: costs rising much faster than public funding; potentially serious pension deficits; and vulnerability of overseas student income.

Scrap firsts and 2:1s, say university chiefs

G. Paton

Daily Telegraph, Jan. 29th 2009, p. 14

There is general agreement that traditional degree classifications are out of date, uninformative and in need of replacement. One possible new approach is the use of Higher Education Achievement Reports (HEARs) which will give a detailed list of students' achievements. The first 18 universities will be issuing these alongside degree grades in 2009.