Funding latest
BRITISH UNIVERSITIES ARE currently under-funded by at least £1bn a year, according to an audit commissioned by the Government.
The review suggests that 20% of this money should be obtained by increasing research charges for businesses and charities. However, this leaves students and taxpayers to foot the other £800 million. Minister for Higher Education, Margaret Hodge said: "there is no free lunch in this world of student funding", refusing to rule out the introduction of top-up fees. This statement comes at the same time as reports which suggest that student debt has risen by 50% in the last year while graduate confidence in securing a job has dropped.
Top-up fees would allow leading universities to charge anything up to £6000 a year, with Oxford and Cambridge expected to take the lead. Some, like the bursar of New College, subscribe to this idea based on the American high-fee, bursary-reliant system. Helena Puig Larrauri, co-chair of the OUSU Finance & Funding Committee disagrees: "The introduction of top-up fees would be a core deterrent to access to University. They would heighten the elitism that is already apparent, and pose further difficulties to the schemes aiming to broaden access to Oxford."
This news comes in the same week as the Times UK Graduate Career Survey revealed that job confidence among students is lower than ever. Only 39% of finalists expected to be entering the job market at the end of the year.
30th May 2002