News - from the College and the Students
June 14th2010 - Quality degrees should be more widely available, the new coalition government says
- Source - BBC News
The university system is in need of "radical change" to provide a better deal for taxpayers and students, the universities minister has said. David Willetts stated, Labour
had left university funding in a "mess" and the coalition needed to make £700m savings. Universities had to find cheaper and more flexible ways to teach, he said.
A review into tuition fees is under way, led by former BP chief executive Lord Browne, and is expected to report some time in the summer. Mr Willetts told the
BBC he did not want to prejudge the outcome of the review and was not "assuming that fees should rise".
Current fees in England are £3,225 a year and graduates pay the money back only when they earn a salary of £15,000 or more. The National Union of Students said many
already graduated with huge debts.
Taxpayer burden
 Mr Willetts is due in Oxford to give his first major speech since becoming universities minister but he told the BBC it would not be about
tuition fees. "What I want is something that does indeed reduce the burden on the taxpayer but it also has to strengthen the finances of universities in the long term, some of
which are in a very fragile state because of the mess that Labour left behind," he said. "And above all improve the quality of the student experience, improve the teaching and the
incentives for good teaching for students and university."
 Mr Willetts stated that the current further
education system was made "for the good times" - which are over. He mentioned that students should be able to study for a degree at any university in England, but attend lectures
at their local further education college. Mr Willetts says the current degree system is "unsustainable" This will help meet rising demand for degrees and improve access to courses
for people who cannot afford to leave home, he argued. The model the government has in mind is that of London University. It says it has 45,500 students studying by distance and
flexible learning in 180 countries. Another 6,000 students in the UK do the same. This is on top of the tens of thousands of students - the majority - who do study at the university's
institutions in the capital. The university is made up of 19 colleges and institutes. Thousands of other UK students already study through distance learning with the Open University and degree courses are also taught by some further education colleges. It is the
extension of universities into this area that the government is keen to encourage.
Record numbers of young people are applying to UK universities as all public sectors come under financial pressure. Applications for this year are up 16.5% on last year. Mr Willetts
will talk of the need for higher education to "diversify". The present system, he will say, is too inflexible and cannot respond to the current economic climate. The Conservatives'
Liberal Democrat coalition partners fought the general election promising to scrap tuition fees and are not expected to back any move to raise them.
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