Do student's futures look less bright, and more Browne?

Lord Browne’s independent review of higher education funding was finally revealed today, after days of speculation about what it would mean for the future of the UK’s Universities. Yet is the report really as controversial as students and liberals would like to make out, or does it provide a viable strategy for developing our Universities into world-leading institutions?

Much attention has focused on the removal of an upper cap for tuition fees, effectively creating a market economy and allowing Universities to charge upwards of the current cap of £3,290 a year. The argument for this is that it would provide additional revenue to Universities, and allow students to drive the market through demanding more value for money on their courses. In addition, the revenue would create 10% more places to deal with the increasing numbers of applications. What is not mentioned is how the introduction of top-up fees in 2006 has had little effect on student satisfaction, and how further raises would be any different.

Universities currently charging at less than the upper limit of £3,290 number in the minority, and removing this cap is sure to send tuition fees soaring. In principle the format would allow good Universities to thrive and force poorer ones to shape up, but the reality is that people equate quality with an increase in cost and successful Universities would have little to prevent them from charging upwards of £12,000 a year. Prospective students may find their first choice course unavailable to them purely on financial grounds, a situation more likely to effect the less well off.

What also concerns is the lack of detail on how Universities will be encouraged to support students from poorer backgrounds. Universities charging more than £6,000 a year will be required to contribute more support to poorer students, as well as demonstrate improved standards, but Lord Browne’s mention of an education super-quango to deal with this seems to add an extra layer of bureaucracy that will surely not be cheap to set-up or run. It also seems slightly out of turns with this current government’s views on quangos, given the high profile abolishments of NHS and other public sector quangos since May of this year.

Further worry comes from the idea of removing Government funding from all but ‘key subjects’, such as science. The coalition has already declared war on the UK film and game industries through the abolition of Labour-pledged tax incentives, and humanities subjects are sure to suffer as Universities increase their ‘key subjects’ to secure additional funds.

The Lib-Dems, who find themselves in a highly embarrassing situation given their election time pledge to abolish tuition fees, have been making the point that this is a step on the way to a graduate tax, and there is a degree of truth to that. Students will not have to repay fees until they are earning upwards of £21,000 per annum, an increase from the current £15,000. However the likelihood of moving past this step with the next Government is unlikely, with support for the Lib-Dems evaporating since May and Labour yet to confirm it’s stance under Ed Milliband.

Still there are some highly worthwhile points set out in the review. A move for part-time students to be given the same benefits enjoyed by full-time students would be welcome, and could lead to a growing number of mature students. Additionally Lord Browne highlights the failing of most schools to provide adequate careers advice before applying for University places, and an overhaul of the current system to provide students with qualified careers advice would help with the growing number of graduates leaving University to find their degrees are having little effect on their job prospects. Suggestions for an increase in the interest rate on loans to be in line with Government spending and an increase to the time after which student debt is written off also make sense in our economically difficult times (especially as I have never understood why it should be written off anyway).

Amusingly, a week after the Government was criticised for child benefit reforms that some called too simplistic, it seems that a far more complicated proposal to make tuition fees more ‘fair’ has came in for an equal level of criticism. That the UK tuition fee system is in need of serious reform there is no question, but Lord Browne’s review does little to convince that removing an upper limit for tuition fees is the answer. As of writing this article the proposals seem far from certain, with Lib-Dem MP Greg Mulholland spearheading the liberal’s challenge and Vince Cable suggesting that a £7,000 cap would be more suitable, but no doubt there will be some fascinating debate in the coming weeks.