Cash for Courses
The University of Oxford is accepting more overseas students than ever in order to improve finances, despite the government bill to raise the maximum tuition fee to £3000 annually.
Figures recently published in the Oxford University Gazette show that 41 per cent of graduate students now come from overseas; compared to only 33.5 per cent a decade ago. For many courses, such as medicine, foreign students may be charged up to £20,000 per year. This figure dwarfs the amount of extra income which would be received from home students by the introduction of top-up fees.
The incoming Vice-Chancellor, John Hood, declared in his oration speech of October 2003: "The fact is that British and European students are a net financial loss to both University and colleges." Furthermore, the advent of the proposed top-up fees will not significantly remedy this financial deficit, especially in light of an increased system of bursaries for poorer students, proposed by the government as a bid to quell backbench rebellion.
Outlining the academic plan, Hood explained that "there is a good strategic and academic case for increasing the number of graduate students and investing in overseas students at that level". He did not apply this to undergraduate admissions, although these are also up moderately to six point four percent this year from 5.9% in 2001.
MP's are set to vote on the Higher Education Bill on 27th January. Should the bill fail, Hood proposes "thinking about what we can do outside the arena of the controlled economy": an effective privatisation of the university. Startegies are currently being deliberated by the Educational Policy Standards Committee (EPSC).
The proposed legislation to raise variable tuition fees up to limit of £3,000 per year is currently opposed by the Tories, Liberal Democrats and approximately 140 Labour backbenchers, only 81 of whom are needed to defeat the government.
Dr Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, has called the measures a "disaster," adding that the variation in fees across the university spectrum would result in a system based on "the ability to pay, when it should be on the ability to learn."
This process of universities effectively privatising themselves is already in motion. The Times reported last month that the Russell Group, which represents 19 of the country's top research-led universities, has broken ties with Universities UK, the body representing the higher education sector, by setting its own policy on issues such as academic pay and student tuition fees. Its chairman, Professor Michael Sterling, said that funding per student had halved in real terms over the past 20 years, and top-up fees would not be sufficient to reverse this trend.
The Vice-Chancellor's office refused to give any comment to The OxStu regarding the matter.
15th Jan 2004