Universal changes

Universities have been in the news quite a lot this month, and surprisingly, the news is generally good.

An article in Guardian online on the 6th March talked about how HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) has decided that universities in England will get an above inflation rise - 3.3% - in funding for teaching, research and widening participation next year. The settlement is higher than any allocated to other public sectors for next year.

Total funds of around £7.6bn have been allocated for the 131 universities and 128 colleges for 2008-09. In particular, the research funding includes £62m for business-related research, £185m for charity-funded research and £199m for postgraduate research.

I think it is encouraging that these funds have been allocated for universities, particularly for research. Through technology transfer to businesses, university research can greatly contribute to UK industry development, and therefore ultimately boost the UK economy – maybe there will be a good ROI for the generous spending!

While on the 2nd March, an article in The Observer described plans for up to 20 new university towns to be created across Britain, at a total cost of £150m over 6 years. Towns will be invited to enter a 'university challenge', bidding for the right to have a new campus or college in their area. The new campuses could be linked to existing universities or could be entirely new bodies.

Regardless of the critics who might argue that such new town universities would dilute the strength of the intellectual tradition, I think there are definite good points to this plan. New universities could regenerate areas that have high unemployment - the higher-education sector contributes around £50bn to the economy and sustains around 600,000 jobs. Graduates also have a much lower rate of unemployment, with 2.9 per cent without a job, compared to 6 per cent among the population who don't have a degree. Thirdly, it will give adults more chance to gain a degree and therefore contribute to the skills base in the UK. People who are put off going to universities because of money worries may find it easier and more convenient if there is more choice of universities, closer to where they live.