Universities To Slash Places For School Leavers In Government Crackdown On Rising Education Costs

[The Masked Tulip]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11...tion-costs.html

Sixth-formers face tougher competition for university places after ministers demanded an admissions clampdown to curb the spiralling student grants bill.

Universities Secretary John Denham has cut the number of additional places for the next academic year despite rising applications and has frozen expansion plans for 2010/11.

He also urged universities to 'eliminate over-recruiting' - leaving academics with little option but to make fewer offers or make offers more demanding.

Instead, he called on institutions to fund thousands of new courses for professionals who lose their jobs in the recession with the help of a £50million 'war chest' raised from the cut in VAT.

The announcement, in a letter to university funding chiefs, is the first concrete indication the Government will fall far short of a flagship target to boost university recruitment to 50 per cent of young people by 2010.

Ministers have insisted major university expansion is vital to Britain's future prosperity but appear to have run out of cash to fund the growth.

Mr Denham admitted last year his department had a £200million hole in its finances after under-estimating how many undergraduates would be eligible for student grants designed to offset the cost of going to university.

Some 130,000 students each year - all from middle-income families - will see their maintenance grants either cut or scrapped altogether.

Should be interesting for all those Uni towns with loads of BTL investors.

In my home town of Swansea the suburbs near the Uni are already filled with loads of 'to let' signs - often two competing agencies' signs in the same garden. This week I saw 3 different signs in one garden.

[Executive Sadman]

I thought the plan was to make everyone students so theres no unemployment.

[eightiesgirly]

I thought the plan was to make everyone students so theres no unemployment.

Headache inducing overdraft says no.

[interestrateripoff]

And all of these newly built student flats.

It appears that Ponzi Brown is starting to panic and the money is running out, perhaps Sir Humphrey is at work protecting the nation.

[DataMonkey]

University education is just another bubble. The amount of building work by universities in the last 5 years alone just beggars belief. Pretty much all paid for with debt, some carried by the students and some by the institutions themselves. I would put good money on at least 1 university going bust before this is all over. And you can bet that the banks are still counting on university debt as high quality, After all, universities don't go bust do they? I can't think that one has in the past. But this time, everything's been bastardised by debt.

[laurejon]

How strange, under the Tories in the last recession Uni Students had maintenance grants, accomodation, and Uni Courses for free.

Having had ten years of unprecedented miracle growth, this Government dont have the money to pay for students that are themselves paying also.

The only experience labour have of recessions is creating them, the Tories experience is in turning them around and putting the nation back to work, and a treasury that has savings rather than monumental debts.

Labour do have a place in the UK, but its in opposition, and never in Government as events over the past decade have clearly shown.

[Shao Kahn]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11...tion-costs.html

Should be interesting for all those Uni towns with loads of BTL investors.

In my home town of Swansea the suburbs near the Uni are already filled with loads of 'to let' signs - often two competing agencies' signs in the same garden. This week I saw 3 different signs in one garden.

What are these "student grants" / "maintenance grants" that are mentioned in the article?

I thought that these were scrapped under New Labour.

Student debt, they must surely mean?

[dances with sheeple]

Headache inducing overdraft says no.

Headache inducing Cheap student union lager says YA!

[OnlyMe]

Another delayed pop then.

Universitybubble Part Ii

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...niversitybubble

Universitybubble Part Iii

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...niversitybubble

[huw]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11...tion-costs.html

Instead, he called on institutions to fund thousands of new courses for professionals who lose their jobs in the recession with the help of a £50million 'war chest' raised from the cut in VAT.

Excellent, a few more VAT cuts and we'll soon have a 'war chest' to bail out the banks again. If that's not enough, we can start cutting income tax and NI.

[dances with sheeple]

How strange, under the Tories in the last recession Uni Students had maintenance grants, accomodation, and Uni Courses for free.

Having had ten years of unprecedented miracle growth, this Government dont have the money to pay for students that are themselves paying also.

The only experience labour have of recessions is creating them, the Tories experience is in turning them around and putting the nation back to work, and a treasury that has savings rather than monumental debts.

Labour do have a place in the UK, but its in opposition, and never in Government as events over the past decade have clearly shown.

after this little lot, they don`t even have the credibility for that IMO.

[_w_]

From the original article:

£50million 'war chest' raised from the cut in VAT

If the Treasury said that we are doomed...

[dances with sheeple]

University education is just another bubble. The amount of building work by universities in the last 5 years alone just beggars belief. Pretty much all paid for with debt, some carried by the students and some by the institutions themselves. I would put good money on at least 1 university going bust before this is all over. And you can bet that the banks are still counting on university debt as high quality, After all, universities don't go bust do they? I can't think that one has in the past. But this time, everything's been bastardised by debt.

Oh please let it be Edinburgh, please please!

[_w_]

And all of these newly built student flats.

Well spotted

All those unintended consequences...

[laurejon]

after this little lot, they don`t even have the credibility for that IMO.

The thing with politics you need both extremes of the argument. The masters of spin have for the past decade sold themselves to both Tories and Labour. How many times have you heard that there is no difference between the parties ?

In fact there was always a huge difference, however using the millions Labour spend each year on Media the public were hoodwinked to believe what they wanted to believe.

Labour are Socialists, Old Socialist............their ideal is that the working classes keep their station in life, and the monied classes keep them working.

I can assure you that having been working class in the literary sense of the word, I was far better off under the Tories.

My Grandfather told me as a teen starting work "The working classes biggest enemy, is the working class" And I have to tell you all, he is absolutely right, I have seen this in my working life on a daily basis.

[Guest An Bearin Bui]

University education is just another bubble. The amount of building work by universities in the last 5 years alone just beggars belief. Pretty much all paid for with debt, some carried by the students and some by the institutions themselves. I would put good money on at least 1 university going bust before this is all over. And you can bet that the banks are still counting on university debt as high quality, After all, universities don't go bust do they? I can't think that one has in the past. But this time, everything's been bastardised by debt.

Yep, lots of expansion funded by debt and the promise of lucrative international students' fees. I know of one 'university' (ex-nursing/catering school) here in Edinburgh that is sailing close to the wind now with a multi-million pound deficit because it built a brand new 'integrated' campus outside the city. It was the typical scenario where they sold up old buildings in the city centre during the property boom believing they could buy a new place and still make a profit but with dodgy finances, plummeting land values and an over-run on building costs, it hasn't worked out quite as they planned. And now demand for their courses in PR and media studies will be cut too! Oh dear...

[dances with sheeple]

How strange, under the Tories in the last recession Uni Students had maintenance grants, accomodation, and Uni Courses for free.

Having had ten years of unprecedented miracle growth, this Government dont have the money to pay for students that are themselves paying also.

The only experience labour have of recessions is creating them, the Tories experience is in turning them around and putting the nation back to work, and a treasury that has savings rather than monumental debts.

Labour do have a place in the UK, but its in opposition, and never in Government as events over the past decade have clearly shown.

Well, I suppose students are supposed to pay back when they graduate, so they essentialy just exist on credit, as opposed to grants? I could never understand people 20 or so years ago moaning about "freeloading" students. Many students parents then probably paid higher band taxes? so they had paid for the right to send their offspring to uni? and anyone paying lower band taxes also had? getting drunk now, what I think I mean is, not everyone should automaticaly go to uni, but all further education should be free in a decent society? but then if you don`t get to go you will moan about "freeloading" students? Ah well f*ck it, who cares?

[laurejon]

Look across the world and you will find that education is the cornerstone of any nations success.

The idea that you make a business from it, and charge is like something out of the third world, and the third world is exactly were we will be if we dont start investing in our own children.

Its that simple, Africa, India, China, all fell behind over the past 50 years due to lack of access to free education, that corrected we dont stand a chance.

If I could pay for the education of someone for 15yrs, then take 50% of their wages for the rest of their life what a fantastic investment that would be for me.

Edited January 22, 2009 by laurejon

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

The amount of building work by universities in the last 5 years alone just beggars belief. Pretty much all paid for with debt, some carried by the students and some by the institutions themselves. I would put good money on at least 1 university going bust before this is all over. And you can bet that the banks are still counting on university debt as high quality, After all, universities don't go bust do they? I can't think that one has in the past. But this time, everything's been bastardised by debt.

Leeds Met's V-C resigned last week after it became clear that the numbers didn't add up on the massive new building programme he'd instigated (and other follies he'd signed the cheques for, e.g. renaming and rebranding the place as Leeds Carnegie Uni in a crude attempt to bury its polytechnic heritage). They were one of only two HEIs (Greenwich being the other one) that have hitherto charged significantly less than the maximum £3k pa UG fees, and speculation is reported in today's Times Higher Ed Supplement that they'll be charging the full whack as of next year in a desparate attempt to stave off bankruptcy.

Working in middle management in the Russell Group institution next door, I sincerely hope that they pull it off. An HEI quite simply becoming insolvent has no precedent whatsoever, and I'm quite sure that if our fiscally incontinent friends on the other side of the A64 do actually succeed in blazing that ignominious trail, that we'll be called upon to help clear up the wreckage.

Their students' union went bust and was internally bailed out last summer, BTW.

Edited January 22, 2009 by The Ayatollah Bugheri

[laurejon]

Not suprising a degree is worthless today.

If a University that teaches economics cannot balance their own books, then what on earth gives them the Authority to teach it as a subject ?

[dances with sheeple]

The thing with politics you need both extremes of the argument. The masters of spin have for the past decade sold themselves to both Tories and Labour. How many times have you heard that there is no difference between the parties ?

In fact there was always a huge difference, however using the millions Labour spend each year on Media the public were hoodwinked to believe what they wanted to believe.

Labour are Socialists, Old Socialist............their ideal is that the working classes keep their station in life, and the monied classes keep them working.

I can assure you that having been working class in the literary sense of the word, I was far better off under the Tories.

My Grandfather told me as a teen starting work "The working classes biggest enemy, is the working class" And I have to tell you all, he is absolutely right, I have seen this in my working life on a daily basis.

Were you slumming it to write a book? very romantic. I agree working classes were better off under the Tories, because if you manged to pass a few exams you could go to college or uni for an extended piss up (four years mmm) and not have to pay anything for doing so. The biggest enemy of the working classes is TV IMO. ( oh and drink)

Edited January 22, 2009 by dances with sheeple

[DataMonkey]

Leeds Met's V-C resigned last week after it became clear that the numbers didn't add up on the massive new building programme he'd instigated (and other follies he'd signed the cheques for, e.g. renaming and rebranding the place as Leeds Carnegie Uni in a crude attempt to bury its polytechnic heritage). They were one of only two HEIs (Greenwich being the other one) that have hitherto charged significantly less than the maximum £3k pa UG fees, and speculation is reported in today's Times Higher Ed Supplement that they'll be charging the full whack as of next year in a desparate attempt to stave off bankruptcy.

Working in middle management in the Russell Group institution next door, I sincerely hope that they pull it off. An HEI quite simply becoming insolvent has no precedent whatsoever, and I'm quite sure that if our fiscally incontinent friends on the other side of the A64 do actually succeed in blazing that ignominious trail, that we'll be called upon to help clear up the wreckage.

Their students' union went bust and was internally bailed out last summer, BTW.

A good point and not one I'd thought of. Imagine being £15k in debt part way through your final year when your uni goes bust and you get nothing. Not difficult to see how riots would start in that situation.

[dances with sheeple]

Not suprising a degree is worthless today.

If a University that teaches economics cannot balance their own books, then what on earth gives them the Authority to teach it as a subject ?

Exactly.

[dances with sheeple]

A good point and not one I'd thought of. Imagine being £15k in debt part way through your final year when your uni goes bust and you get nothing. Not difficult to see how riots would start in that situation.

Todays students don`t have a riot in them, they have been seriously brainwashed.

[dinsdale]

Labour do have a place in the UK, but its in opposition, and never in Government as events over the past decade have clearly shown.

Wrong - Labour need to be atomised at every conceivable level of power - parish, council , national, EU... We will be left with incompetence no doubt but that's never kept me awake at night.