New figures show that Britain’s university sector is heading in the right direction
Nik Darlington 11.56am
Latest research from pollsters YouGov reveals that young people are not being put off higher education by rising tuition costs. Four in five 16-18 year olds still want to study at university and even of those who are unsure, more than one-fifth say they are still likely to go to university in the future.
The survey of more than one thousand youngsters aged 16-20 also found that they are more interested in course and teaching quality and future employment opportunities than tuition fees.
The higher education sector has been hit by figures recently released showing an 8.7 per cent fall in university applications last autumn, compared with 2010. Critics of the Government’s reforms to student finance claim that the increase in tuition costs to between £6,000 and £9,000 has deterred potential students from applying.
But when you look behind the headline statistics, you see that the actual drop in applications by school leavers is much smaller. Mary Curnock Cook, chief executive of Ucas, said:
“The more detailed analysis of application rates for young people takes account of population changes. This shows a fall of just one percentage point in the application rate in England, with little change across the rest of the UK.”
And despite prominent scaremongering, we see that there have been larger declines in applications from more advantaged groups of students than disadvantaged groups of students, whose applications have in fact held relatively steady.
Look at individual institutions and you can find real success stories. For instance, figures show that applications to Coventry University for courses starting in September 2012 are 1.24 per cent higher than for 2011 and 9.71 per cent up on 2010. It is a welcome vindication, perhaps, of Coventry’s innovative approach to pricing and marketing - policies that I highlighted on these pages nearly a year ago.
Last year, Coventry University announced fees ranging from £4,600 to £9,000 across six different packages. Variable pricing better captures students’ willingness-to-pay. On top of this, Coventry introduced bundling of products like textbooks, printer credits and field trips.
In an op-ed for the Telegraph this week, universities minister David Willetts reiterated the Government’s ambition to lift the lid on university standards:
“Applicants are responding to all this change by asking more searching questions of institutions. That explains why there are large changes in the application figures for individual institutions and individual courses within the overall total. Those institutions that succeed are likely to be those that are more accountable to their students.
Already, a huge rationalisation of courses is underway at London Metropolitan University to reflect student demand better. Manchester University is putting a new focus on the level of contact their students have with academics. And universities throughout the sector are seeking to engage more with employers, so that their students become more employable.”
Information, advice and guidance (IAG) is inconsistent and incomplete. It is difficult to compare universities with each other across important metrics such as the quality of the teaching and contact hours. Students instead rely on fuzzy hermeneutics such as history and reputation for research.
YouGov’s research found that the most important factors in deciding what university to attend are: the reputation of the university for high quality teaching (79 per cent), the appropriateness of the course (72 per cent) and the ability to move into a well-paid job on graduation (67 per cent).
Little more than one-third of young people reckon it is important that fees should be less than the maximum permitted £9,000 per year.
Do not believe the alarmists who claim that Government policies are shutting off promising futures for an entire generation of young people.
Students are becoming more discerning consumers of education and universities are becoming more responsive (and responsible) providers of education.
It is a fair concern that we are putting too much of a ‘pounds and pennies’ value on a university education, rather than the traditional view that it should be a time of holistic discovery and learning.
But we are where we are. In a moment of ill-considered flippancy, Tony Blair plucked the 50 per cent higher education target out of the skies. People who really ought to know better now calculate the life chances of younger generations according to the quantity of them going on to university.
We have an increasingly skill-based economy in Britain yet lack the well-trained minds to service it. In that sense, more university graduates are needed, without forgetting that schooling must improve as well.
There are many other life chances open to young people aside from university, such as apprenticeships (at record levels, thanks to the attention given to them by this Government) and work itself. Sir Richard Branson’s idea of offering young entrepreneurs the start-up equivalent of a student loan is a fine thought.
So whether university admissions figures go up or down should not be a concern or a celebration in itself. We need to cease this tunnel-vision hysteria.
It is why students are going to university or opting not to, and what they are doing with their time at university, or outside it - those are the things that matter.
The university sector is like a large ocean-going liner undertaking a sharp change of course. Its turning circle is naturally enormous. But on the current evidence, the sector is going in the right direction.
