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INTO Knowledge - Market News Bulletin – October 1-17, 2010

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INTO Knowledge - Market News Bulletin – October 1-17, 2010 INTO Knowledge - Market News Bulletin – October 1-17, 2010 UK October 14- Lord of the market let competition and choice dive quality Browne's review of fees and finance calls for end to blanket subsidy and fees cap. Simon Baker writes October 14- Mega-quango would control funding, access, quality and student issues Four higher education bodies would be merged to form a "super-quango" under Lord Browne's proposals. October 13- Sir Menzies Campbell joins Lib Dem revolt against rising tuition fees. Former Lib Dem leader to vote against rise in tuition fees after Vince Cable reneged on party's election pledge to abolish them October 12- Tuition fees: Heavy debts will not put students off university prize A blueprint for a transformed university system which will leave many students with massive debts after borrowing the cost of high tuition fees was unveiled today. October 12- Universities face closure as tuition fee rise favours elite Universities face their most radical changes for 50 years as big rises in tuition fees and the withdrawal of government teaching grants force a reshaping of higher education. October 4- Colleges protest over visa ‘misunderstanding’ Recent blunt comments by the immigration minister, Damian Green, that international students applying for further education courses "may, or frankly may not be the brightest and the best" has sparked a furious lobbying effort by principals of the UK's larger colleges, who claim the minister needs to update his understanding of what further education is all about. USA and Canada October 17- US-Africa: Universities for development Poverty alleviation and economic stimulation on the world's poorest continent are problems the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Higher Education for Development intend to help solve. October 13- Gates Foundation pushes technology for College preparedness The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced this week that $20 million is up for grabs for education innovations in a new push to prepare high school students for college. 2 Australia and New Zealand October 17-Universities face funding crisis A collapse in income from foreign student fees has begun to hit universities across the country with Monash University, the nation's biggest, facing a A$45 million (US$44.8 million) drop in revenue next year and the loss of 300 jobs. October 15- Pain in store for top universities Budget cuts at Australia's biggest university, Monash, are "a warning" to other institutions, says University of NSW chief Fred Hilmer. October 13- Australian conference focuses on drop in foreign students Australia's shaken image as an academic destination for international students cannot simply be fixed with new marketing, a plenary speaker at the Australian International Education Conference told higher-education officials here. Asia October 13- Hong Kong to raise higher education rate among young people to 65% in years Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Chief Executive Donald Tsang said Wednesday the city was likely to raise the attending rate of higher education among young people to about 65 percent, from some 30 percent in 2000. October 10-Across the Middle East, a ‘Revolution’ in Arabic Studies As interest in Arabic-language studies has risen over the past decade among Westerners, language programs in the Middle East and North Africa face new challenges. October 09- Self-funded Chinese students now ‘engine’ for US higher ed Along with the increasingly broad and deep educational exchanges between China and the United States in these 30 years, Chinese students have become a powerful "engine" for the U.S. higher education market. October 3- Saudi Arabia’s education reforms emphasise training for jobs At the end of August, about 200 unemployed Saudi university graduates congregated in front of the Education Ministry, in Riyadh. The young men were there to demand government jobs; they held a banner calling for an end to their "oppression." Africa October 17- Study abroad to boost PhDs-proposal An expert study has recommended that a large number of South African students be sent abroad to study for doctoral degrees over the next 10 years, as one way to scale up the number of PhDs produced and boost the country's knowledge and innovation system. 3 UK Lord of the market: let competition and choice drive quality From: Times Higher Education, October 14, 2010 http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode= 413842&c=1 Browne's review of fees and finance calls for end to blanket subsidy and fees cap. Simon Baker writes Dozens of universities could face a struggle for survival after a landmark report paved the way for a massive cut in teaching funding and an open market in fees and student numbers. The independent review on higher education funding and student finance, unveiled this week, concedes that fees of £6,000 are unlikely to bridge the loss of public investment expected in the Comprehensive Spending Review on 20 October. In an interview with Times Higher Education, Lord Browne of Madingley, who led the review, said that the panel had set a "soft cap" of £6,000 - above which universities would lose an increasing proportion of fee income to the state. The figure was set lower than the level required to bridge the funding gap in order to drive efficiency. "We'd like to see universities take on a challenge for efficiency, much as every part of society is doing at the moment. And this is a way of catalysing that," he said. The review calls for an end to the cap on student numbers at individual institutions and, crucially, the extension of fee support to part-time students. Lord Browne said that competition and student choice should be the main drivers of quality. However, the report, Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education, has come under fire for being "inextricably linked" to the CSR and for paving the way for an end to public funding for all subjects except "priority" areas such as science and technology. Ruth Farwell, chair of GuildHE and vice-chancellor of Bucks New University, warned that institutions focused on teaching students from poorer backgrounds would be hardest hit by the proposals. She added that it appeared the review had been "hijacked" by the government's retrenchment agenda. The plan would not create a proper market, she said, as the "natural inclination" for most universities would be to charge £6,000 a year to replace lost income. Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said he was "a little surprised and very disappointed" that cuts and the removal of the hard fee cap had figured so highly in a report that had many good points. 4 "The government is now able to make bigger cuts than it otherwise would have been able to," he said. He also attacked as "disingenuous" the idea that a sliding levy on fees would prevent some universities charging huge amounts. Mr Bekhradnia also questioned whether the proposed student-finance system would save the government money, given that it would extend support in some ways. "In cash terms, the generosity of this package will increase public expenditure in the medium term. However, because of creative accounting rules, the government would be able to borrow the much larger amount needed to pay all the upfront fees - and it would be for its successors to meet the costs," he said. "I'm not sure if this counts as the sort of dodgy accounting that brought down the banks, but it certainly has that feel." Roger Brown, professor of higher education policy at Liverpool Hope University, said allowing student choice to drive quality was "misguided" and risked creating a "two- tier" system. Others welcomed the review's proposal to remove the cap on student recruitment. Nicholas Barr, professor of public economics at the London School of Economics, said: "Market forces create incentives to quality unless you've got excess demand. "It is terribly important to set quantity free so that you don't have excess demand. As somebody who cares passionately about access, I think this a good plan," he said. Alasdair Smith, professor of economics at the University of Sussex and the institution's former vice-chancellor, said it would allow the best institutions to expand and force poor-quality providers to change or face closure. However, he criticised the plan to focus remaining teaching funds on higher cost subjects, as there were "still social benefits from students studying history or economics". Lord Browne said the proposals would not create an unfettered market in higher education. One source close to the review predicted that in reality no university would charge more than £9,000. "The words 'free market' suggest to people the concept that there are no rules and that's not true; there are plenty of rules," Lord Browne said. He also claimed it was "very unlikely" any failing university would disappear, but it might have to "change its shape". Asked if institutions committed to widening participation, such as London Metropolitan University, would suffer, Lord Browne said that they would be "fully capable of sizing up the situation", adding: "They will have to find their way and they will have time to do that." All attention will now turn to how many of Lord Browne's proposals will be adopted by the coalition government, given Liberal Democrat MPs' pre-election pledges to oppose higher fees. 5 Speaking in the House of Commons on 12 October, Vince Cable, the Lib Dem business secretary, acknowledged that the party's opposition to fees was "no longer feasible". He said the government agreed with the broad thrust of Lord Browne's recommendations, adding: "We are in a massive economic mess.
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