This is from the Guardian this morning:
University Vice Chancellors (who, as a group, are by far the biggest winners from the current system of university funding) are saying the system is broken.
Tuition fees have not worked for UK-based students.
The penal charges after leaving university are making people question whether it is worth going.
The funds from overseas students are threatened by new migration law changes.
The viability of many universities is in serious doubt. Many are in fairly persistent deficit now.
So, yet again, the Tories have proven that imposing a private financing model on a public utility not only does not work but will bring it to its knees.
Of course, if you believe in education for an elite, this is the result you have always sought. I suspect that many in the Conservatives will be happy with this outcome.
But let's look at it another way. Firstly universities are a massive export earner for the UK. If we wish to undermine this export business when most others are already failing the Tories are going the right way about doing so, but this makes no economic sense.
Second, imposing charges on students is bad enough. Imposing penal interest rates on supposed loans taken out to fund education for the benefit of society is madness: it is all about redistributing income upwards from those who have not got parents who can cover their full costs when at university to those who have.
So most certainly this system is broken.
But then so too are universities themselves, where the commodification of the university often seems of greater importance than the supply of education. The over-administration that is a characteristic of the NHS under similar pressures is also to be found in the university sector. That also needs reform.
But are the VCs right? Of course they are. Universities are just joining the rest of education, healthcare, social care, and so much more in broken Britain. All the Tories have proved is that if you set out to break the country, then you can. The trouble was, they never had any idea what should be put in place of all they wrecked.
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“All the Tories have proved is that if you set out to break the country, then you can. The trouble was, they never had any idea what should be put in place of all they wrecked.”
Put another way all that Thatcherism has proved is that if you set out to reform a country it’s only commonsense to have a clear understanding how this will work for all. The Tories didn’t!
“it’s only commonsense to have a clear understanding how this will work for all. The Tories didn’t!“
Are you sure..?
I think Tories want all the money, free speech, education and healthcare to be under their control and topping up their net worth.
It matters not a jot if they break one or all of these four nations in the process.
Why would they ever need an alternative. Their current plan is working very well indeed. For them.
I agree. Framing is important. When someone says the govt is failing, it’s always from a particular perspective. The govt is doing very well from the perspective you mention, which is their intended aim. As you say, they don’t actually care about others. I used to find far right thinking incoherent, but it’s not, it’s simply focused, moment by moment, on personal gain at the expense of everyone and everything else. From that view, the lies, hypocrisy, duplicitousness, etc. all make complete sense.
So much wrong…. but it is the penal (and penal IS the correct word) interest rates that really annoy me.
They reason they can’t be changed easily is the sale of the debt to the private sector; T&C can’t be altered easily.
They were sold on purely ideological grounds.
The answer? Tender to buy back at 10 PC premium to the market price…. with the threat of unilateral legislation to cut the rates as further encouragement.
All existing debt should carry a rate equal to gilts. Ie ‘at cost’.
Now, no debt would be better but this would be a start.
Agreed
Having been to quite a few Uni open days, the contrast between the hopefulness of youth and parents with the awful knowledge that you know that your kids are being launched into debt is one of the saddest things about the whole thing – it feels unreal, but mostly it feels totally wrong.
Agreed
And I am now dealing with the disillusioned young men who have done well at university who cannot find anything really useful to do in the real world
It’s not encouraging
Well, Bless them is all I can say but their father is certainly no slouch at self-realisation. I hope they realise that.
That may be the problem….
David Byrne says:
It is possible that some University VC’s are concerned about their rising levels of debt and the ability to repay?
As UK banks distance themselves from lending, private sector loans are being extended through bond issues, private equity and asset management predators. Currently public and private debt levels appear to be around £10 billions.
The UK government has stated that universities are not “too big to fail”.
Follow the money and watch the asset grab! Or am I not understanding the problem?
I think that is a dimension of it David.
You describe the balance sheet risk, whilst I looked at the income statement.
Succinctly and clearly put.
The Tory ‘markets are best’ mantra has always been a cloak for those who want to capture the state for their own benefit, yet simultaneously deny responsibility for the broader populous / our planet. Sadly there are some elements of Labour who see the state in the same way, but serve slightly different interest groups.