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Report Template The Senate, 10 December 2014 Report of the Vice-Chancellor EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This paper presents a summary of key background information on recent developments, and is based on the Vice-Chancellor’s report to Council on 13 October. The Vice-Chancellor will introduce the report at the meeting and will provide members of the Senate with the opportunity to raise questions on any aspect of the report. 1. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT 1.1 HE policies beyond the general election . The Social Market Foundation published in August a new pamphlet, Robbins Rebooted, by Liam Byrne, Labour’s Shadow Higher Education Minister. The title is a nod to the Robbins report of 1963, but additionally signals a riposte to David Willetts’s Robbins Revisited pamphlet from October 2013, and sets out five main ideas: o ‘Technical Universities’, a collaboration of employers, major university science and engineering departments and colleges, offering students the chance to study a new ‘earn while you learn’ ‘Technical Degree’. o Developing greater links between colleges and universities based on the US-style community college movement. o Reform of research funding to support British universities in creating global ‘Star Alliances’ of the world’s best scientists with longer term research support. o A big increase in university enterprise zones to better link universities to regional growth. o Expanding access to HE, with a new national advice service to support young people into higher academic and technical education, support for university-school trusts, an expansion of the Open University’s MOOCs and a new partnership between the Workers’ Educational Association and UnionLearn. The pamphlet proposes an expansion of alternative pathways through HE and drew on confidential input on this matter by the Vice-Chancellors of Sheffield and Warwick, who were described as leading the way in this area, in particular high quality provision in a world-class research environment. http://www.smf.co.uk/publications/robbins-rebooted-how-we-earn-our-way-in-the-second-machine-age/ . In an interview with the Guardian Liam Byrne outlined the policy direction of the Labour Party going in to the next election. He stated that ‘the direction of travel is putting fees down to £6,000, not putting them up’; however he clarified that this was not a firm policy. He also praised the idea of linking industry and study – and mentioned the University– saying that a Labour government would expand degrees co-financed between the government and employers, allowing students to obtain qualifications while remaining debt-free. http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2014/aug/28/liam-byrne-higher-education- 1 policy-reforms . The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have also spoken of their support for a major increase in advanced vocational and technical education, including to degree level and beyond, and are citing the University's AMRC Training Centre as an exemplar. HEFCE is working with the University to design pilot programmes which could form a model, linked to company funding and the AMRC and Nuclear AMRC Catapult centres. Former HE Minister David Willetts has revealed that the Conservative Party is considering allowing top universities to charge higher fees in return for taking on student loan debts. Under this proposed system, graduates earning over £21,000 a year would repay their student loans to their alma mater rather than the Treasury. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/oxbridge-could-charge-16000-in-tuition- fees-under-new-government-plans-9647490.html . The Liberal Democrats have committed to ring-fencing the current science research budget if part of government following next May's election. They have also pledged a further £100m of funding for the Catapult programme, ahead of the opening of two more in energy systems and precision medicine next year. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/lib-dems-to-offer-science-ring-fence-pledge/2015311.article 1.2 OECD report, 9 September 2014 . The OECD has published ‘Education at a Glance 2014: OECD Indicators’. It finds that access to education continues to expand, but that the benefits of expanded access are not being shared equitably. http://www.oecd.org/edu/Education-at-a-Glance-2014.pdf . Findings from the report indicate that 55% of young adults in the UK will take a degree before they reach 25, compared with 39% in France and 53% in the US. They reflect projections by the government-backed UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES). But UKCES also warns that the skills of these graduates could go to waste unless more is done to create good jobs for young people, and prepare young people to take those jobs. The report shows that UK spending per student in tertiary education in 2011 was $14,000 – significantly lower than in competitor countries such as the United States ($26,000) and Switzerland ($23,000). It also highlights the importance of tertiary education for social mobility, with data showing that less than 10% of 20 to 34 year-olds where one or more parents did not complete upper secondary education go on to study at degree level. 1.3 UUK annual conference, 9 - 11 September 2014 . The President of Universities UK (UUK), Professor Christopher Snowden, told delegates at UUK’s annual conference that there are three policy issues an incoming government must prioritise if they are to support the university sector: research and innovation; internationalisation and immigration; and student funding. http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Pages/StrengthinDiversityConference2014.aspx%20/l%2 0.VBbZCrdOW70 . Also speaking at the conference, new Universities, Science and Cities Minister Greg Clark appeared to rule out any increase in university tuition fees. He said that the current fee regime: ‘broadly covers the cost of education for most courses in most institutions and there are arrangements to support high-cost courses’. He went on to say he is ‘not persuaded’ by the idea of raising fees to meet rising costs. The Minister is in the process of compiling a 10-year strategic review of science and innovation, due to be published at the same time as the Autumn Statement this year. An analysis of his speech by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) can be found at: http://www.hepi.ac.uk/2014/09/10/30000-15000and-60000-45000/ 2 1.4 Postgraduate funding . There is a continuing debate around postgraduate funding. A significant proportion of postgraduates do not receive any support for tuition fees or living costs. The University is leading a consortium of universities funded by HEFCE to explore removing barriers to postgraduate education for students from under-represented groups, including financial barriers (see 2.2 below). The government is expected to set out its proposed solution to the acknowledged problems in this year’s Autumn Statement, due on 3 December. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/feature-priced-out-of-postgraduate- education/2015722.article 1.5 Widening participation . Greg Clark, the Universities, Science and Cities Minister, says extra effort should be made to get more teenagers into HE in some towns and cities where entry rates are just a quarter of those in other areas. He said the ‘opportunity gap’ between areas had been narrowed in recent years but was still too wide. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11031738/Minister-action-needed-to-eradicate- university-black-holes.html 1.6 International students: net migration targets . Labour has pledged to remove students from net migration figures. In a long-awaited announcement shadow Universities, Science and Skills Minister, Liam Byrne, has confirmed that it would be firm policy of a future Labour government to remove international students from net migration targets. htttp://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/byrne-commits-to-pledge-on-overseas- students/2015713.article . Former Conservative Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine has recently made a similar argument. He said that while controls on immigration are important, international students bring great benefits to the UK, and he believes the public do not view such students as immigrants. http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/aug/25/heseltine-cut-foreign-students-figures-lower-net- migration-conservatives . According to new research by Universities UK and think-tank British Future, most people are opposed to reducing the number of international students coming to the UK, even if this would make it harder to reduce immigration numbers. International students are the largest group of migrants from outside the EU counted in the government’s net migration figures, representing around a third of all people coming into Britain. Only a fifth (22%) of people polled thought of international students as ‘immigrants’ at all. http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Pages/InternationalStudentsUKimmigrationDebate.aspx %20/l%20.VBLl5bdOW70 1.7 The North: city growth, regionalism and devolution . In July David Willetts stepped down as Universities Minister, and Greg Clark became Minister for Universities, Science and Cities. Greg Clark’s brief is wider, with links between his role in devolving power to cities and the role that universities play in their local and regional economies. In June the Chancellor George Osborne delivered a speech on developing a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ of better connected Northern cities, to be achieved through developments in transport, HE, cultural activity and devolved power to cities. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chancellor-we-need-a-northern-powerhouse . In July Andrew Adonis, Shadow Infrastructure Minister, published a report that argued that government needs to facilitate innovation by promoting higher rates of business and export growth. The report recommended that Local Enterprise Partnerships should be empowered with larger devolved budgets to promote better skills, 3 infrastructure and economic development. http://www.yourbritain.org.uk/uploads/editor/files/Adonis_Review.pdf . In July the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce published a report on encouraging economic growth in cities through skills development.
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