Lower Tuition Fees in the Future?

setmefree2

University of Southampton reveals fall in undergraduate intake

Vice-chancellor Don Nutbeam says decline in numbers is 'wake-up call' for sector

Evidence has emerged that some universities have suffered a slump in recruitment this year after a vice-chancellor revealed that the undergraduate intake of UK students at his institution for this September had fallen by more than 600 on 2011.
The University of Southampton, a member of the Russell Group, has recruited fewer British undergraduates to start this autumn in a decline the vice-chancellor described as a "wake-up call".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/sep/06/university-southampton-fall-undergraduate-intake


600 * £9k - about £5.5 million squids pa
or $£16 million squids over 3 years.

setmefree2

Next year, the government will allow unrestricted recruitment of students achieving a slightly lower grade threshold – grades of ABB and above at A-level.

What effect will that have????

pinkteapot

I noticed that the Open University has extended its registration deadline for this year. Can't help but wonder if they've seen a significant drop in their intake with their fees for England having almost quadrupled this year.

melancholly

All a bit unpreidctable so far - plenty of people say it could go either way. I honestly think things will stay pretty much as they are for 3-5 years until the dust settles from the new changes. After that, it's anyone's guess.... The outcome over foreign students and immigration counts and being able to sponsor visas will also play a big role as that's another big source of income that's looking a bit rocky now. When they're trying to balance the books, all avenues will matter, so the decisions on funding for postgrads and possibly giving loans will all factor in. Hard to judge anything on the first year alone, especially after all the conflicting information in the media.....

setmefree2

University chiefs fear for the future after admissions chaos

University leaders are blaming ministers for chaos in this year's clearing, with 30,000 fewer applicants

Elite institutions are slamming the government for failing to predict what looks like a dramatic fall in the numbers of top students in the system. Many universities – old and new – have struggled to meet their recruitment targets, and experts warn that some less popular subjects could face the axe.

Privately, many VCs report that applicants seem to have underperformed on their predicted grades more than in previous years. And, crucially, selective universities say that the number of students with AAB upwards was noticeably lower. This has come as a real shock.

A Westminster source says the data the government was working with was seriously misjudged. "Hefce were asked by the department to predict how many AABs there would be in the system. They looked historically and predicted a 5,000 increase. The reality was more like a 5,000 decrease, which then becomes an effective deficit of 10,000 anticipated AAB students."

One exasperated university head says: "This new admissions environment is not stable, it is not linear, it is, in the real sense of chaos theory, a chaotic environment with all sorts of unintended consequences."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/sep/10/university-admissions-chaos-clearing-numbers-down?newsfeed=true

When you add in the ongoing chaos with GCSEs this year I think we are starting to see a patten emerge from the current education minister........

Just 2 and a half years to the next election......

setmefree2

A spokesman for University College London, another Russell Group university, said: "The changes allowed by the new funding regime has allowed UCL to increase its intake across a large number of programmes.
"In terms of numbers, at this stage of the process, UCL’s total UK/EU undergraduate intake is roughly 2,800 compared with 2,550 in 2011.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/9528009/Leading-universities-forced-to-turn-away-gifted-students.html

hisfadgesty

setmefree2 wrote: »

What effect will that have????

I hope the individuals who voted blue are now red in the face.

True Tory education...

setmefree2

Third of Britain's elite universities still looking for students

Sheffield University had places to spare on 257 of its 326 courses, including English literature and law. Exeter was yet to fill 191 out
of 316, including psychology and classics.

Leading universities have also been hit by a decline in the number of teenagers gaining good A-level grades following a drive to make exams harder. David Willetts, the universities minister, said that this summer there was a fall of 5,000 in the number of pupils believed to have gained at least two As and a B, the threshold for many courses at leading institutions. If the places are not filled, some universities could suffer multi-million-pound losses.

it is believed universities could be facing a £700 million loss of funding over three years.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/9542312/Third-of-Britains-elite-universities-still-looking-for-students.html

setmefree2

New figures on this year's university admissions are expected to be published shortly, confirming a dramatic drop in student numbers caused in part by the government's new AAB system.

The figures - expected to be published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service - come amid mounting concern that some institutions face financially damaging shortfalls in the number of students accepting places on undergraduate courses for the new academic year, the first under maximum £9,000 fees.

The number of students achieving AAB or higher at A level is 11,000 down on Hefce's estimate, THE believes. But the numbers achieving AAB+ in equivalent qualifications such as BTECs is higher than anticipated, meaning the net shortfall in the AAB system is 7,000.

As already reported by THE, Hefce's overestimate of AAB numbers has effectively delivered a cut in places across higher education that acutely affects some leading universities.
The government introduced the AAB system - allowing institutions unlimited recruitment of students with those grades or better - to give leading universities the chance to expand.

And then they proceeded to raise grade boundaries so there were less students with AAB - joined up thinking ....not...

To ensure the system did not increase the total number of places in higher education and thus increase government spending on student support, Hefce estimated the number of AAB+ students, then reduced the undergraduate numbers cap in place across the sector by that amount.
But partly because of this year's fall in top A-level grades, AAB numbers were lower than expected. Universities with high proportions of AAB students had the majority of their student numbers deducted, but were then unable to replace them all.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=421149&c=1

Errrr you couldn't make it up.....it must take quite a high level of stupidity for a government to shoot itself in the foot this badly and to end up achieving the exact opposite of what it set out to achieve - which was to allow Russell Group Unis the chance to expand...

...Or was it actually always their intention to restrict the number of students in Russell Group Unis....makes them more exclusive?

Are we surprised?!

setmefree2

Meanwhle in Wales

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19590903

setmefree2

An interesting point here

more (Students)may be delaying until next year when ABB kicks in.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jGi5vyCf7FSzIk2ugwzXGst_476Q?docId=N0154101347545406146A

Mr Willetts cited other ‘pressures’ on universities, including a fall in the number of 18-year-olds this year and more students with ABB grades delaying entry until next year – when universities will be able to admit unlimited numbers of ABB students.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2202971/More-5-000-places-left-unfilled-universities-A-level-results-slip-introduction-9-000-fees.html#ixzz26QRjnMgP

I'd be surprised if students had done that?

Do you think Russell Group Unis will lower their typical offer to ABB? Looking at some of the websites the typical offers don't seem to have been lowered for 2013/2014 entry.