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Undergraduate places to fall by 3,000-4,000
1 February 2010
The Government’s decision to withdraw the 10,000 extra places offered last year will see overall recruitment drop for 2010-11, despite an increase in applicants. Rebecca Attwood reports
Students are facing an even bigger squeeze on university places this autumn, it has emerged.
Despite record levels of demand, Times Higher Education has learnt that there could be 3,000 to 4,000 fewer places for full-time undergraduate entrants in 2010-11 than there were in 2009-10.
The situation has arisen because the 10,000 “emergency” places for 2009-10, announced by the Government last summer, have been withdrawn.
According to Million+, which represents new universities, this means that universities will be able to recruit only the same number of students in 2010 as they did in 2008.
Les Ebdon, chair of Million+ and vice-chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire, described the move as “completely counter-intuitive”.
“The evidence points to rising demand, but funding for student support, which the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills provided to allow 10,000 additional students to be recruited in 2009, has been withdrawn and universities will not have these numbers available for students wishing to start university in 2010.”
He said there could be “no excuse” for the Government limiting opportunities.
“Funding must be provided to ensure that all those who are qualified can find a place at university in 2010,” he urged.
The news came as the National Union of Students launched a campaign to mobilise the student vote for the general election.
It is asking students to use their vote to support candidates who have pledged to oppose any increase in tuition fees in the next parliament.
The NUS has identified a “hotlist” of 20 areas where the student vote could make a decisive difference to the result.
Wes Streeting, president of the NUS, said: “It is clear that a rise in fees would be deeply unpopular across the country. Only 12 per cent of the public think raising fees should even be on the table [according to a YouGov poll]. As no mainstream political party has a clear policy on fees, it is down to individual candidates to take a stand and sign our pledge.”
The NUS has identified Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Sheffield as among the key battlegrounds.
Also on its list are: Reading, Cambridge, London, Southampton, Bristol, Leeds, Oxford, Durham, Exeter, Norwich, Brighton, Lancaster, Nottingham, Plymouth and Lincoln.
rebecca.attwood@tsleducation.com
Readers' comments
How about the fact that with fewer places, the entry standards can be raised, thereby improving completion stats without the need for fiddling of marks or watering down of curricula? The students who don't gain entry can instead study at an FE college in order to gain a qualification that is suited to their ability and interests. No shame in that.
I couldn't agree more with Howard Fredrics. Over recent years, Universities have been recruiting students with very low A level results (largely through clearing), sacrificing standards for funding. It has been very depresssing to see the damage done to academic standards, and I hope that some reasonable cap on recruitment will help reverse this trend.
You know those lowest common denominator weight-loss TV programmes? don't they always say that repeated dieting then bloating is not good for you?
@mark
While perhaps some recruitment of less-than-wonderful students has gone on (indeed, I teach some of them), it isn't as simple as just looking at their A-level results. We get surprises, in both directions. And while better academic standards might be a nice outcome, this process may well leave a number of well-qualified but basically unemployable academics lining up at the job centres. Do I want to sacrifice my family and so support cuts in order to improve standards? Quite frankly, if it's someone else who gets the improvement in standards and it's me explaining why I probably would be a disaster at a call centre, I'll take self-interest any day.
Too many students who shouldn't be in any university are being recruited.
Too many subjects that shouldn't be in any university are being offered.
The FE sector is increasingly delivering quality university qualifications at a fraction of the cost to the student and the state. The intention of a qualification like the Foundation Degree (equivalent to Y1+2 Hons) is to deliver vocational learning in combination with academic rigour. FE colleges would be willing to absorb greater HE numbers and focus on the job of producing work ready graduates. However, let us not forget this round of funding cuts has resulted in HE in FE places also being capped. Colleges face the same funding hit as Uni's for over recruitment. Surely an own goal from the Government?
I would sack all academic staff who use uni in place of university.
An opportunty to reinvent the old Youth Training Scheme (YTS), and give basic training for industry craft skills and put all the underachievers in to a solid trade. Ho! I forgot, we don’t have industry any more. Maybe YTS Latte Art training?
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