Policy Tracker

Higher education framework and fees review

After nearly two years of discussion and delays, the Government’s “framework” for higher education has been published and a review of fees and student finance launched. Designed to set the context for the fees review, the framework maps out long-term ambitions for the sector and makes some new demands on universities, while warning of tough times ahead.

Higher Ambitions, the 120-page report that sets out the Government’s strategy, largely confirms the direction of recent policy. It declares UK higher education to be a “success story” and adds: “Over the last decade we have pursued the twin objectives of supporting excellence and widening access, and these have proved to be complementary and mutually reinforcing.”

However, the sub-title of the report, The future of universities in a knowledge economy, gives a clear indication of the priorities of Lord Mandelson and his Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis). While the First Secretary has insisted since the publication of the report that there is no threat to the arts and humanities, or to “blue-skies” research, its emphasis is firmly on wealth-creation through science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Commissioned by John Denham, as Universities Secretary, in February 2008, the review began with submissions by vice-chancellors and other representatives of the sector on nine themes, from teaching and the student experience to internationalisation, part-time students and e-learning. Commentators from outside the academic world added their views in a subsequent round of reports.

Publication of the Government’s conclusions had already been delayed when responsibility for higher education passed to Lord Mandelson’s new department. He took much of the summer and autumn to put his own stamp on the report, eventually separating it from the launch of the fees review, which has been given a deliberately broad remit.

 The framework proposals are divided into six areas:

Access

Standing by Tony Blair’s target of 50 per cent participation in higher education by the age of 30, the report calls for more progress on opening up access to leading universities.

• Sir Martin Harris, director of the Office for Fair Access, will advise ministers by next Spring on further action to broaden access to the most selective universities.


• Improved advice and encouragement to go to university will be offered at an earlier age in schools.


• The use of “contextual data” will be encouraged in the selection of students, looking beyond exam grades for those from poor backgrounds.


• New types of higher education programme, including foundation degrees, will be offered to older students through part-time or workplace study. 

Knowledge transfer

• New funding incentives for courses that deliver high-level skills, especially in STEM subjects. Some funding currently allocated through block grant will become “contestable”.


• Universities to publish statements on how they promote student employability.


• Business to become more involved in the design of courses and the provision of work-placements.


• Professor Adrian Smith to lead a review of all aspects of postgraduate education.

Research

• Greater concentration of research funding, especially in STEM subjects, to preserve world-class research in an era of “tighter fiscal constraints and increased competition from other countries.”


• New incentives to increase the economic and social impact of research through the Research Excellence Framework.


• Support for stronger long-term relationships between business and universities.

Teaching

• Universities to publish standardised information on the nature and quality of courses, including graduate destinations.


• Support for Universities UK’s review of the external examiner system.

Local communities and the wider world

• Unspecified support for universities’ continued local and regional activities.


• Commitment to “champion the international standing of our universities”.


• Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the British Library, to chair a task force on maintaining the UK’s leading position in online learning. The review will identify opportunities for investment, the Government providing seedcorn funding for selected partnerships between universities and business.

Maintaining excellence with tighter public funding

• Fees review to be launched, including support for part-timers and postgraduates, to determine the balance of funding in universities.

 Fees review

 Lord Browne of Madingley and his team of six will have up to a year to “analyse the challenges and opportunities facing higher education and their implications for student financing and support.” The review will cover full and part-time undergraduates and postgraduates, examining the balance of contributions to higher education funding by taxpayers, students, graduates and employers.

The review has been told to take into account:

• Widening participation, including the impact of bursaries and fair access to all institutions;


• Affordability for students and graduates, as well as the public purse;


• The desirability of simplifying the system of student support.

The review members are:

• Lord Browne, former chief executive of BP


• Sir Michael Barber, McKinsey consultant and former Downing Street adviser


• Diane Coyle, journalist and economist


• Professor David Eastwood, Vice-Chancellor of Birmingham University


• Professor Julia King, Vice-Chancellor of Aston University


• Rajay Naik, youth worker and chair of the British Youth Council


• Peter Sands, chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank

 Next steps

• January 2010 > Initial report of skills audit


• Spring 2010 > Sir Martin Harris to report on access


• Spring 2010 > Professor Adrian Smith to report on postrgraduates


• Summer/autumn 2010 > Fees review to report


• Autumn 2010 > Lynne Brindley to report on e-learning


• 2013 > Assessment phase of first REF

To find out more about this article, visit: http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/higher-ambitions