18 | REVIEW OF THE YEAR | NEWS & CURRENT AF FAIRS


REVIEW OF TH


"A LONG LINE OF DISAPPOINTING REVELATIONS HAVE CONSISTENTLY BLOWN APART MINISTERS’ CLAIMS THAT £9,000 FEES WOULD SAVE PUBLIC MONEY "


MEGAN DUNNE, NUS VICE PRESIDENT


and support students in the future. It seems unlikely that these questions will be resolved by the end of 2014 so we can expect them to rumble on into 2015.


Megan Dunn: It was good that the student loans crisis was exposed by numerous reports this year. A long line of disappointing revelations have consistently blown apart ministers’ claims that £9,000 fees would save public money, and confi rms our long-held view that the current system was ideologically driven and costs more than what it replaced. We also welcomed a report from the


Offi ce for Fair Trading (OFT) into the use of academic sanctions when students owe money to their institutions. As a result of NUS complaints the OFT opened an investigation in July 2013 to consider whether there were problems with these practices. Their fi ndings are a vindication of the position NUS and students’ unions have taken. Some universities apply academic sanctions which prevent students from graduating, enrolling onto the next academic year or using university facilities if they owe money to the university in library, parking or damage fi nes, or arrears for accommodation or child care services. The OFT reached the conclusion that the use of such terms would very likely be considered unfair under consumer legislation. It now recommends that universities employing these terms and conditions should review their rules and make any necessary amendments.


Sam Jones: The major development in research has of course been the development of the Science and Innovation Strategy in close consultation with the HE sector. This, in the wake of Sir Andrew Wit y’s review, is helping to build a wider understanding of the vital role of UK research in innovation and in helping the economy to grow, particularly SMEs. There has been growing pressure on the government to change current immigration policies that are having a profoundly negative impact on the UK’s ability to compete in the global higher


education market – in particular the removal of the post-study work visa. The number of non-EU students at UK universities fell by 1% last year, the fi rst decline ever recorded. Some Alliance universities have reported as much as a 50% reduction as a result of post-study work visas being removed. That’s the evidence we presented to the House of Lords Select Commit ee in March to illustrate the impact these changes have had on STEM courses in the UK.


Alistair Jarvis: The announcement to expanding student numbers was welcomed by many, although not all. I believe that more graduates are good for the economy, will help develop a stronger society and that a university education can improve the lives of individuals. There shouldn’t be a cap on aspiration and this announcement makes that possible in term of a university degree. However, there does remain some questions about the sustainability of this approach in terms of long term funding commitments. It is important that expansion does not come at the cost of quality, by reducing average funding per student. The Government has said that the changes would be funded by the sale of the student loan book debt to private companies – it remains to be seen whether this will raise enough funding or is a sustainable model.


Q: Has it been a successful year?


Gordon Slaven: From the British Council’s perspective, 2014 has seen some major highlights in higher education. We retained our role as the UK’s National Agency for the EU’s Erasmus+ programme, which will inject almost a billion euros over the next seven years into encouraging greater mobility within the EU for young people. Our new Generation UK: China programme enables students to study or work in China is proving popular, and we have extended it to India this year. Our Going Global conference series on the internationalisation of higher education at racted more than 1,200 of


the world’s higher education leaders to Miami in May, and we look forward to the next conference in London in June 2015. The government’s Newton Fund has provided much-needed support to creating stronger research links between the UK and emerging economies to tackle key global challenges. However, from a UK perspective, while UK institutions continue to over-perform in global rankings, and continue to produce world- class research, the decline in applications from international students from certain countries is a growing concern. Much work needs to be done to prevent a ‘blip’ becoming a longer-term trend.


Pam Tatlow: Universities in England have managed a huge upheaval in the funding system. Senior management teams are dealing with a great many unknowns including risks to teacher and health professional education. In spite of this, the downturn in applications from full-time students which was triggered by the 2012 fees hike has been impeded and universities should take a lot of credit for this.


However, the part-time and postgraduate markets continue to suff er from the economic downturn as well as from the uplift in fees. This suggests that any funding system needs to be holistic and focus on the needs of all students right from the start.


Megan Dunn: For NUS, it has been a very successful year. We worked with students’ unions to divert £60m from fee waivers directly into students pockets; we successfully campaigned to save the Disabled Students Allowance, stop the student loan sell-off and save the Financial Contingency Fund in Wales.


Sam Jones: One thing that shows the strength of our higher education sector is the growing demand from students to embark on a university degree despite the rising costs of tuition fees. In an unstable global economy, underpinned by technological advances and increased complexity, a degree is still by far the


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