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million+ urges the government to heed the OECD advice to invest in education and fund university expansion

Responding to the publication of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) annual “Education at a Glance” report, million+ today (Tuesday) expressed concern at the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) spend on education in comparison to other countries and urged the government to take note of the report’s main conclusion: With employment markets still weak, now is a good time to invest in education.

million+ has consistently been calling for the government to deal with the mismatch between supply and demand for university places, a call now backed up by the report’s author who believes that countries who want to come out stronger from the economic crisis should create and fund sufficient places in university.

Pam Tatlow, Chief Executive of million+ said, “At a time of public expenditure reductions these figures make sober reading especially since there has been a significant expansion in private contributions to Higher Education in the UK by students who have to pay back their fee loans. Other countries are doing much better than the UK in terms of both funding and participation.

“It is crucial that the UK does not drop further down the tables in terms of the amount of GDP that we invest in higher education. To emerge from this recession stronger and fully able to compete globally in the future it is vital that the government heeds the advice of the OECD and others, that investment in higher education and continued university expansion is vital for society and the economy. These figures show that there is absolutely no justification for universities and students to be in the frontline of further Government cuts.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

  1. million+ is a leading university think-tank, working to solve the complex problems in higher education. www.millionplus.ac.uk
  2. The OECD report gives figures up to 2007 and can be found here www.oecd.org
  3. The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.