19 May 2010
Extra university places are needed to secure lifelong learning opportunities
Speaking at a Policy Conference on the Prospect for Lifelong Learning supported by the European Social Fund and NIACE today (19 May), Pam Tatlow, Chief Executive of the university think-tank million+, set out the key challenges to securing lifelong learning in higher education. Ms Tatlow made clear that the additional places at universities, promised by the previous government but now under review by the Conservative–Lib Dem coalition, are vital to ensuring opportunity for all would-be students whatever their age or background.
Ms Tatlow said: “We must ensure that the drive to create opportunities to study at university in the UK is maintained. Most immediately, this means that the funding and student support costs of the 20,000 additional student numbers provided for English universities in the 2010 Budget, should be maintained, tempting though it may be to suggest that civil servants needed letters of direction from former Ministers before signing-off commitments made by the previous Labour Government. These places are not a free lunch: universities bidding for the additional numbers will have to deliver efficiency savings equivalent to teaching grant over three years.
“In any case, there is no economic or social case to cut these 20,000 places. For every one of these graduates, the Treasury can expect to recoup an additional £40,000 in tax and national insurance revenue in today’s money. Put another way, by funding 20,000 students the Treasury will recoup an additional £800m in tax revenue – and this disregards the well-proven non-monetised benefits of higher level qualifications. This is an UK economic test that the new Government should not fail.
Following on from the release of submissions to Browne Review of fees and funding, and with public hearings scheduled for tomorrow and Friday, Ms Tatlow also set out the urgent need for a fairer and unified system of student support. She said: “This would end the disadvantage facing part-time undergraduate students who unlike their full-time counterparts in England do not get fee loans, maintenance grants or maintenance loans.”
“We need to decide whether the cause of adult lifelong learning is best served by a highly differentiated market in fees in higher education based on a full-time model of study – a market which relies on taxpayer funding to provide core teaching grant and maintenance grants and loans up to a certain level with those universities with the most exclusive social profiles then able to charge additional fees. This would undoubtedly create additional resources for these universities and would be the exact opposite of policies which advocate that pupils from disadvantaged background should be supported by additional funding such as the pupil premium. If we want to think seriously about life-long learning for adults and social mobility, this may not be the best direction of travel for the UK.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
- million+ is a leading university think-tank, working to solve the complex problems in higher education www.millionplus.ac.uk
- For more information, comment or interviews from million+ please contact Victoria Mills on 020 7717 1659 or 07900 277819
- The full speech given by Pam Tatlow can be downloaded here