IN BRIE F

r Apprenticeships generate £40 in the economy over a student’s lifetime for every pound spent by government, new research commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has found. The study, which estimated the economic impact of the skills gained by adults in the 2008-09 cohort, found that the work done that year would add £75 billion to the economy over their working lives.

r Welsh universities have to grow in size if Wales is to attract major inward investment providing jobs and high wages, according to Swansea University Vice- Chancellor, Richard Davies. Professor Davies told the Welsh Affairs Committee that the large number of small higher education institutions in Wales meant that the nation was at a disadvantage.

r The Reading Agency has launched a new website – Reading Groups for Everyone – as part of its campaign to double the existing number of library- linked reading groups to 20,000 by 2013. Having piloted the test site with 19 library services, the agency is now inviting all libraries (and other organisations) to put their reading group details on the website. Go to: www.readinggroups.org.

r The tenth anniversary of the Centre for Intergenerational Practice is being marked with the publication of tested ideas and materials as best-practice guides and toolkits for use by local authorities, voluntary and community sectors and government departments. The centre was launched by the Beth Johnson Foundation in 2001 to understand the complex relationship dynamics created by an ageing population profile that extended generational spread within society. Go to: www.centreforip.org.uk.

4 ADULTS LEARNING APRIL 2011

Top universities miss state pupil targets HIGHER EDUCATION

The universities of Oxford and Cambridge both failed to increase their share of students from state schools last year, according to figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

Oxford took a slightly lower share of state pupils, 54.3 per cent, in 2009-10 than the 54.7 per cent it took in 2008-9, while Cambridge’s state intake stayed at 59.3 per cent of full-time undergraduates in 2009-10. The figures compare to HESA-set benchmarks of 70.2 per cent for Oxford and 70.4 per cent for Cambridge.

Both universities have said they would charge tuition fees of £9,000 a year from 2012, under the new higher education funding regime. Of the 18 universities that, at the time of writing, had announced plans to charge the maximum, eight are below their state pupil benchmarks. Ten of the 16 English Russell Group universities fall well short of their benchmarks, while just three – Liverpool, Sheffield and Southampton – are above their targets.

Under the government’s plans for universities,

institutions that charge above £6,000 a year are required to spend more on widening access. HESA found that, overall, there had been a slight increase in the proportion of state pupils at universities in England, from 88 per cent of the full- time undergraduate intake in 2008-9 to 88.4 per cent in 2009-10. Director of Fair Access Sir Martin Harris said: ‘It’s encouraging to see a continuing positive trend in the HESA widening participation performance indicators for the sector, with greater numbers of students coming from low participation neighbourhoods, lower socio-economic groups and state schools. ‘Both this and news that participation in higher education now stands at 47 per cent are testament to the hard work and commitment by institutions to improve access by disadvantaged students.’ Wendy Piatt, Director General of the Russell Group of the most selective universities, said that ‘the key reason why too few poorer students even apply to leading universities is that they are not achieving the right grades at school.’

Newest universities face biggest cuts FUNDING UNIVERSITIES

New universities in England will be worst affected by cuts to funding announced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England last month. All but five English universities will have their funding cut next year, with total reductions between now and 2012-13 amounting to £940 million, 12.6 per cent. With the teaching grant cut by 8.2 per cent

compared to a 2.8 per cent cut to the research budget, universities that can offset teaching losses with their research income emerge strongest under the settlement. The reweighting of HEFCE’s formula for distributing

research funding towards ‘internationally excellent and world-leading research’ means that some of the wealthiest, research-intensive universities, such as

Oxford and the London School of Economics, do best. Among the 20 least affected are seven members of the Russell Group. Institutions with the lower-rated research, including

many post-1992 universities, suffer the heaviest reductions. The worst-affected, Bishop Grosseteste University College in Lincoln, faces a 13.4 per cent cut. Further education colleges that teach degree courses are also facing cuts, in some cases by as much as a fifth of their income for higher education. Les Ebdon, Chair of the university think tank million+ and Vice Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire, said: ‘The net result is that the wealthiest universities with the most socially exclusive profiles will retain more public funding, while universities which create the most opportunities will receive less funding.’

The Board of NIACE has announced that David Hughes, the current National Provider Services Director at the Skills Funding Agency, will be the new Chief Executive of NIACE, following the retirement of Alan Tuckett in the summer. He will take up his position as NIACE Chief Executive on 1 September 2011, after a career that has involved leading complex organisations and implementing change in post-school education and skills. Before joining the Skills Funding Agency, David worked as Executive Director in Derbyshire and Regional Director – in both the East Midlands and London – of the Learning and Skills Council. He has also worked in the voluntary sector both in the UK – as Chief Executive of Nottingham CVS – and Australia in areas including housing, social enterprise, regeneration and education. Alan Tuckett said: ‘I can think of no-one better than David to take forward the work of NIACE. We will need all of David’s values and his combination of flair, energy and strategic vision to adapt those messages for a new era.’

The Big Lottery Fund has pledged up to £50 million to help the ‘most vulnerable’ in England tackle the potential impacts of climate change by 2015.

It has also launched a consultation on how the funding can be best used. A BLF statement said the fund was needed because vulnerable people, such as older people on low incomes and those with disabilities, might be the ‘most challenged’ by the need to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to new climates. They were more likely to live in low- quality housing, would be worst affected by the impact of floods and heat waves, and would have ‘fewer resources to reduce their carbon footprint and pay higher fuel bills’.