A central plank of the government's higher education reforms
cam under attack after it emerged that about 15,000 fewer
students started university this year, after the introduction
of top-up fees. Opposition MPs and student leaders said the
provisional figures, released by the admission service UCAS,
proved that the annual £3,000 fee had deterred many people
from studying.
A TES article, which discusses whether the recent, massive
expansion of universities has benefited working-class youngsters.
To read this article in full visit www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2276470
Lord Adonis wants all teenagers to be able to take part in
summer courses during the holidays. Research in the US has
shown that young people who opt for a summer learning activity
get better results in their exams. Ministers have mounted
summer 'university' pilots involving 10 London boroughs in
summer 2006.
Courses in the pilot schemes include studying script writing,
space exploration, food hygiene, science and a range of arts
and drama options. Many of the courses are linked to universities,
giving teenagers a glimpse of university life in their early
teens in an attempt to persuade them to go on to higher education.
Lord Adonis wants to widen the scheme to every London borough,
and then to persuade other authorities to operate similar
schemes. He believes they could be vital in identifying the
talent in the 30,000 or so youngsters who, according to the
Prince's Trust, will leave school with no qualifications this
summer.
University students can't write decent English. Worse, their
attempts to do so show that many can't follow a logical train
of thought or present a reasoned argument. In fact, growing
numbers are not ready for the demands of higher education.
This damning verdict comes from professional writers who
have been working with students in universities. They are
shocked at what they have found, and have decided to make
public a report summarising the full depths of their concerns.
Hilary Spurling, a prize-winning biographer who launched the
report, entitled Writing Matters,
said: "Most contemporary British students arriving at university
lack the basic ability to express themselves in writing."
In 1999, the Royal Literary Fund launched a fellowship scheme
to place writers in universities to help students with their
writing. The idea was that working writers would be able to
help students in all subject areas communicate better. Since
then, 130 writers have worked in 70 universities and colleges,
and there are now 60 fellows in post. They work in a range
of institutions and the scheme has been very successful. All
have run into the same experience, finding today's students'
lack key skills.
The report was co-produced by researchers at Oxford and the
University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the body
which all candidates must pass through to go on to university.
The group, known as the Nuffield Review, said the current
system of education endured by 14 to 19-year-olds put too
much emphasis on results, which "means there is a tendency
towards extreme instrumentalism in learning: if it is not
assessed then it is not important."
The authors of the report insisted they were not engaged in
the "whimsical harking back to some previous golden age",
saying they came to their conclusions through focus group
interviews at 21 universities with 250 admissions staff.
While there was praise for students' presentation and computer
skills, the interviews uncovered an alarming decline in literacy
and numeracy standards. The Department for Education and Skills
said: "We have already come forward with proposals to
improve the basics, including the introduction of a tougher
GCSE that will mean no one will get a C or better in English
and mathematics without mastering these skills."
(Financial Times, 9 February 2006)
The Higher Education Funding Council has said that nearly
a quarter of first-year students, more than 71,000, will
fail to graduate from the university or college at which
they enrolled. Even 15 years later, most of the drop-outs
will still not have achieved any higher education qualification.
The figures, based on official projections of universities'
performance, implied a waste of about £500 million
a year and called into question the Government's policy
of urging even more young people to enter higher education.
Not included in the statistics are the thousands of students
who enroll in haste during clearing but decide that university
is not for them and pull out before 1 December.
The council said the reasons for dropping out "may
be unconnected with the course or the institution"
and could include homesickness.
A table of the percentage of first-year students expected
to graduate shows that universities with the highest graduation
rates are largely those that are most academically eminent.
Without exception, however, those at the bottom of the
table are the least academically selective, undertake
little research and have expanded fastest to meet the
Government's aim of "widening participation".
(Telegraph, 22 September 2005)
Research into the graduate labour market has
found that a university degree is no longer a passport to
a well-paid job, and the effect on lifetime earnings has
fallen. Graduates can now expect to earn an average £140,000
more over their lifetimes compared with those who choose
not to go to university; down from the previous estimate
of £400,000. The research, by Nigel O'Leary and Peter
Sloane, of the University of Swansea, suggests there has
been a fall in relative wages for recent graduates and that
rates of return on a degree are in decline. The huge rise
in the number of students in the 1980s has eroded the wage
premium, with the supply of graduates expanding faster than
demand for their skills.
The findings have important consequences for
the introduction of university top-up fees, which come into
force in 2006. The Department for Education and Skills used
the £400,000 figure to justify the £3,000-a-year
standard tuition fees when they were being debated in parliament.
(Financial Times, 31 May 2005)
Labour's pledge to get half of those aged
18-30 into university has been dealt a blow by official
figures indicating that overall numbers have fallen. Last
year 42.5% of school-leavers entered higher education, down
from 43.6% the previous year. The statistics were released
last week by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).
Applications to the Universities and Colleges Admissions
Services had risen by 8.9% in 2005, but the DfES has threatened
to issue severe financial penalties to any university that
over-recruits.
(Times, 22 April 2005)
University students who graduate in 2005 will have accumulated
an average debt of £13,501 - a 12% increase on 2004.
If this trend continues, those starting a three-year degree
course in autumn 2005 are likely to leave college with debts
of nearly £20,000, without taking into account the
impact of higher top-up fees of up to £3,000 a year
to be introduced next year.
The 11th Barclays Annual Graduate Survey also shows that
a quarter of students with debt borrowed money from parents,
relatives or friends. The bank says this high level of debt
could adversely affect graduates' ultimate ability to get
on to the property ladder or invest in pensions, and could
deter others from going to university in the first place.
(Independent, 14 April 2005)
University students are being offered crash
courses in punctuation, spelling and grammar because they
lack the basic language skills they should have been taught
in school. Lecturers at seven universities say declining
levels of literacy among first-year students have led them
to provide freshers with classes on essay writing. Professor
Joe Farrell, a modern languages expert at the University
of Strathclyde in Glasgow, said a "fundamental lack
of basic education" had left many students ill-equipped
to deal with higher education. "We are dealing with
people who have no idea of the grammar of their own language,
so we have to do very elementary teaching before we can
start any proper teaching of the target language. More than
half of Scotland's universities, including Strathclyde and
Aberdeen, will offer English lessons to first-year students
this month to help them through their courses.
(Telegraph, 27 September 2004)
The Government's aim of getting half of young people to
attend university by 2010 could heighten the skills shortage
and damage business competitiveness, according to the British
Chambers of Commerce. The business group said the focus
on higher education was leading to the neglect of vocational
schemes. Bill Midgley, the BBC president said: "The
drive to get more students into university is having a damaging
impact on both business and students. The Government must
scrap the 50% university target." School pupils, including
the brightest, must consider all career options and the
"excellent opportunities available to them through
pursuing vocational routes of learning."
The BBC said its regular survey of businesses showed the
number of companies complaining about a lack of skilled
workers had doubled in 10 years. If this continues it could
harm productivity and the country's ability to compete.
Mr Midgley said: "To successfully compete in the global
economy, business urgently needs more young people to pursue
vocational routes, to take apprenticeships and undertake
work-based learning."
The BBC added that school leavers should be made aware
that they could often earn as much by choosing vocational
qualifications over a degree. The Government's 50% target
has been widely criticised. Drop-out rates at many universities
are increasing, indicating that not all students are suited
to higher education. However, the Department for Education
insisted that most of the university expansion would come
in the form of two-year vocational foundation degrees.
(Financial Times, 23 August 2004)
A government-funded report has warned that the massive
expansion of universities is turning degrees into 'lottery
tickets' that offer graduates no guarantee of a good job.
Academics at Warwick and Oxford Universities say the drive
to get 50% of young people into higher education poses
potentially devastating risks for the economy. Many graduates
face disillusionment because there will not be enough
well-paid jobs to repay the debts they accumulate at university.
Meanwhile, the 50% without degrees face a future of low-paid
and insecure jobs as they lose to graduates in the competition
for work.
The report was written by Ken Mayhew, director, and Professor
Ewart Keep, deputy director of the Research Centre on
Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (Skope),
which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Their findings have emerged as a record 450,000 people
sought places at university in 2004, more than the entire
number studying for degrees 40 years ago.
Graduate debt is expected to rise to £21,000 when
tuition fees rise to £3,000 a year from 2006. The
report found little evidence for government claims that
more graduates were vital to Britain's economic success.
The UK's growth rate was no higher in 2004, when 43% of
young people are in higher education than after the Second
World War, when just 4% went to university. The report
said: "The explosion of graduate output has not been
accompanied by any concomitant uplift in productivity
growth… What can be said with confidence is that
the figures deployed by the Government in support of their
50% target and the case for top-up fees are incorrect."
Ministers claimed that research showed that a degree
would be needed for 80% of new jobs by 2010, when it actually
showed that the equivalent of A-levels would suffice.
Professor Keep and Mr Mayhew said the expansion of higher
education would turn vocational apprenticeships into "a
low-status dumping ground for less able youngsters."
The Government's policies would inflict a "triple-whammy"
of disadvantage on those from working-class families.
The best jobs would be monopolised by middle-class students
from elite universities who had better family contacts.
Professor Keep said: "The Government plainly wants
people to believe that getting a degree will lead to a
much better chance of them getting a better job than people
who don't have a degree. It is not at all clear that that
is necessarily true."
(The Times, 26 July 2004)
Students starting their studies at Duke University in
North Carolina, USA, are to be given an Apple iPod to
help them learn. The iPods will be pre-loaded with information,
course notes, audio books, academic calendars and timetables.
The University hopes this will encourage faculties to
experiment with adding elements such as music, foreign
language and poetry to class curricula. Lynne O'Brien,
director of Duke University's Center for Instructional
Technology, said that many lecturers at the educational
institute were keen to add visual and audio elements to
their courses.
(BBC, 21 July 2004)
Many students have such a poor grasp of grammar
when they arrive at university that they can barely construct
a sentence. Even first year students at the most prestigious
institutions often struggle with spelling and addition.
A survey of history departments at about 50
universities has revealed a lack of literacy and numeracy.
Dr Adam Tooze, director of admissions at Jesus
College, Cambridge, said a "significant minority of students
are seriously handicapped by their inability to construct
coherent essays and write grammatical English."
(Telegraph, 16 July 2002)
Government education policies favour middle-class
students at the expense of working-class families, according
to a highly critical report from the Institute for Public
Policy Research. Ministers reviewing options for reform
of student support at universities should instead focus
on supporting the learning and skills sector.
The report calls into question the direction
of Government policy as well as the costs. It will add to
pressure on ministers to look at reforming support for post-16
learners, in colleges, schools and in work.
The report concludes that current funding
arrangements favour higher education over other sectors
such as further education. The report says that given current
constraints on public spending it would make more sense
to introduce education maintenance allowances for the disadvantaged
university student, and extend such allowances for those
in learning and skills.
(Financial Times, 4 December 2001)
Professor Graham Zellick, vice-chancellor
of the University of London, has attacked the spiralling
number of students being encouraged to study at university,
claiming many are "barely literate". He stated that there
was "no rational basis" for the Government's policy aimed
at getting half of all 18 to 30-year-olds into higher education.
(Daily Mail, 3 October 2001)
A study has found that university graduates have better
health, fewer accidents and are less likely to sufer from
depression in later life than adults from similar backgrounds
who do not have degrees. Men who drop out of university
are nearly three times as likely to be depressed and unemployed
more than a decade after leaving than those who finished
their degrees. Also university dropouts show higher levels
of depression by the time they are 33 than students who
left education after their A levels, the research found.
The study was undertaken for the Higher Education Funding
Council for England. It showed that female dropouts did
not show such marked depression as men. Previous research
has shown that graduates earn substantially more than workers
who do not have a degree but the council's study is believed
to be the first to look at the non-economic benefits of
higher education. The research used data from the National
Child Development Study which follows the fortunes of every
child born in the first week of March 1958, which is about
17,000 children. The study also used follow-up surveys from
when the children were aged seven, 11, 16, 23 and 33.
(Independent, 29 August 2001)
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