This buys HE some time, but the whole funding model needs a rethink. That should include restoring the "cap" for individual unis, proper maintenance grants (so students can be students), & an end to soaring interest rates that drive up debt long after students graduate. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... - ThreadSky

robertsaunders.bsky.social • 116 days ago

This buys HE some time, but the whole funding model needs a rethink. That should include restoring the "cap" for individual unis, proper maintenance grants (so students can be students), & an end to soaring interest rates that drive up debt long after students graduate.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0gjyj4979o

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florilegia.bsky.social•116 days ago

None of this is going to balance the books, though, is it? The only reason unis were making ends meet before is that OS students bring in substantially higher fees. We’ve driven that market away, and there’s no way that U.K. students will pay fees at that level.

robertsaunders.bsky.social•116 days ago

Restoring the cap would make a significant difference. Bridget Phillipson has said that "major reform" is coming, so the test will be what that involves.

florilegia.bsky.social•116 days ago

I just worry that “major reform” could be anything, including something ill judged like a pivot to AI

annadavidson.bsky.social•115 days ago

A start would be letting any 18+ year old borrow enough money to live on (increase the maintenance loan) - not have their life chances dictated by whether or not they have parent/s willing or able to pay their uni accommodation & food bills 🤷🏼‍♀️

dburx.bsky.social•116 days ago

Agree, but a rethink shouldn't be about pure restoration, but the needs of modern society: education at different ages, allowing for families, and continuing skills.

techpriest.bsky.social•116 days ago

On a related note, the (understandable) aggrieved sense that Plan 2 amounts to "heads you lose/tails the treasury wins" daylight robbery has a material affect in pushing emigration of UK graduates

techpriest.bsky.social•116 days ago

It's been an obvious push factor that medical recruiters from Aus/NZ have used for years, "you're never paying off your medical school loan in the UK, whereas you might just get the SLC off your back on an Australian docs salary" is an attractive pitch

techpriest.bsky.social•116 days ago

It's also a material factor pushing wider "private sector emigration" (UK engineers being poached for jobs in Perth, service sector professionals heading to Dubai and the wider Gulf)

thomascheney.bsky.social•116 days ago

yeah, I get that abolishing fees is probably not on the table (and tbh I'm not sure its a the best policy choice either, the evidence seems mixed even if it would be my emotional preference) but interest free loans seems a fair compromise that might make actually paying them off possible

eicathomefinn.bsky.social•116 days ago

Pedantic but also political point: 'student number controls' not 'cap'. Caps close opportunities. Student Number controls (handled well) can both open and efficiently manage them.

robertsaunders.bsky.social•116 days ago

A fair point. When I was working in admissions, I think we just internalised the language of the "cap". But you're right that this can give a misleading impression.

christophersmith.bsky.social•116 days ago

But I think the conversation has to happen if we are to have a broad based University system. And better if we owned it...

eicathomefinn.bsky.social•116 days ago

Yes, it's the 'external' (as in, not inside individual universities) stakeholders that most need to be weaned off the language of 'caps' onto the language but also the principles of SNCs, to open up new and better conversations.

vermisstpfarrer.bsky.social•116 days ago

Absolutely agree.
That Labour didn't choose to dismantle SLC, and put interest rates back to at least what was promised in 1994, is 'telling'...

robertsaunders.bsky.social•116 days ago

Bridget Phillipson has indicated that "major reform" of university funding is coming, so the real test will be what that involves.

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