Welfare Reform on the Web (February 2005): Education - UK - Higher

FUNDING CRISIS FORCES OXFORD TO CUT BRITISH STUDENT PLACES

T. Halpin

The Times, Jan. 25th 2005, p.1

Oxford University is planning to cut hundreds of places for British undergraduates and increase those for foreign students as it aims to stem chronic losses that threaten its world class status. Underfunding had left an £95 million deficit on teaching and research in 2003. Foreign students, who pay full fees, are more lucrative than British undergraduates.

(See also The Independent, Jan. 25th 2005, p.5)

LONGER, LASTING

H. Newby

Education Guardian, Jan. 11th 2005, p.22

Prompted by threats to both the "natural capital" of the environment, and the "social capitals", such as education and health, the universities' funding council, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), has published an action plan for sustainable development, Sustainable development in higher education.

PORTRAIT OF THE STUDENT AS A YOUNG SWOT

P. Curtis

Education Guardian, Jan. 25th 2005, p2-3

Worriers crippled with debt or binge-drinking hedonists - who are exactly are the people attending university today? According to the most comprehensive research on the life of students to date - conducted by the polling company Mori for the student housing group Unite - this generation is more career orientated, hard working and serious than any of its predecessors.

POSTCODE LOTTERY FOR UNIVERSITY ENTRANTS

P. Curtis

The Guardian, Jan. 20th 2005, p.6

Whether school leavers go to university is almost entirely dependent on a postcode lottery which leaves people from "good" areas six times more likely to make the leap than those from deprived areas, according to the biggest ever survey of students' backgrounds. Researchers from the Higher Education Funding Council for England spent five years mapping out the proportion of school leavers going to university in every region in the UK between 1994 and 2000. The report concludes that a "deep and persistent" divide between rich and poor is radically affecting young peoples' chance of getting a degree.

(See also The Independent, Jan. 20th 2005, p.23; The Times, Jan. 20th 2005, p11)

QUALITY OR CONTROL? MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

J. Milliken and G. Colohan

Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, vol.26, 2004, p.381-391

Pressure for greater accountability in use of public funds and changes to the structure and function of UK higher education have led to greater competition for students and subsequent resources. These changes have raised the profile of issues of quality in higher education. The difficulty is that there is much confusion about the definition of quality and this leads to problems assessing it. Paper argues that the government's quality assessment agenda is an instrument of control designed to deflect attention from the problems caused by its expansion of student numbers without corresponding increases in funding.

UCAS TO GET ACCESS TO PUPILS' SOCIAL DATA

P. Curtis

The Guardian, Jan. 21st 2005, p.4

The universities admissions service is preparing radical changes to its application process so that colleges get more detailed information about the socio-economic background of prospective students. But the move met with criticism from independent schools' representatives, who said the extra data could prejudice their candidates.

UNIVERSITY GENDER GAP WIDENS AS WOMEN INCREASE THEIR LEAD

M. Taylor

Guardian, Jan. 27th 2005, p.6

The gap between the number of men and women going to university is continuing to grow, according to figures published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. Its research shows that 7% more female than male applicants were accepted on to undergraduate courses in 2004, the gap widening year on year.