Not far ago the universities minister, David Willetts, said that starting from the next September students are expected to pay a ‘fair contribution’ for their degrees. In his major speech today, Mr. Willets described the government’s proposals to make radical changes in higher education. When these plans are realized, students from poor families will have a possibility to apply to the top universities. He also said that institutions should be focused mainly on teaching. He called for cutting costs at universities as the number of senior university managers raised to 14,000 while the number of professors reduced to 15,500.
The Tory minister told that the government considers that graduates who have highly-paid jobs should pay more. However, Lord Browne’s report concerning the university finance is aimed to reject a graduate tax and instead let universities raise tuition fees in amount of £7,000.
David Willetts expressed the idea in his essay: “I do believe it is better for the younger generation to have the chance of going to university – and then pay for that out of the higher earnings they achieve later on – rather than experiencing poorer quality HE or being deprived of the opportunity altogether. This has to make sense for young people.”
Willetts said that ministers prefer a graduate “contribution” rather than a tax because they fear that graduate taxes may urge top students to study overseas. He considers “a graduate contribution is progressive and fair”. These changes are likely to come into force by next September.
Lord Browne is expected to publish his findings soon, just before the government will reveal the results of the comprehensive spending review in October. At that time universities are expecting deep cuts.
Professor Steve Smith, president of the vice-chancellors’ umbrella group Universities UK, said: “My worry is that we may be about to make decisions that fundamentally undermine our future capacity to be a globally competitive knowledge economy”.