New Labour, as part of its 2001 manifesto, announced its target to dramatically increase the number of young adults going into higher education. Central to this policy, working on the recommendations of the 1997 Dearing report, was the introduction of higher variable fees in 2004, which could be up to £3,000 per year, having first introduced a £1000 fee in 1998. While rooted in the idea of social mobility and widening participation in higher education, this move led to an unintended shift in focus in which students became increasingly viewed as competitive assets, with which University leaders can build their institutions and inflate their often dubiously linked investment portfolios.
Universities ceased to be focused on delivering high-quality education and began to focus on growth, competing aggressively to attract new students by spending money on needless passion projects, such as the Teviot redevelopment, that they can use to attract students. Issues that actually impact the students’ experience, such as paying our academic staff a fair wage and avoiding strikes or controlling the costs of housing, move to the background, as they have little impact on new admissions.
This strive for growth has also led UK universities to become financially overly reliant on their highest-paying students. As of this academic year, new undergraduate international students at the University of Edinburgh can expect to pay anything from £28,000 to £51,961 a year for their education. On the university balance sheets, this means that Scottish-domestic students provide only 14.6 per cent of the fees, compared to the highest paying international students, with other UK-domestic students providing only a little more at 18.4 per cent.
For an institution that now looks increasingly like a commercial enterprise, boasting an endowment of £580 million, an increase of £415.5 million since just after the introduction of fees in 1999, this dependence is hardly a surprise. While not an issue at face value, this dependence has led Universities to strategically prioritise high-fee income streams that can easily fluctuate, placing their position and, in some cases, existence at risk. A post-Brexit fall in the number of international students has left the sector in extreme peril, with the Office for Students reporting that more than 40% of universities in England are expecting to be in a financial deficit by this summer.
This has resulted in calls from Universities UK, an advocacy organisation for universities in the United Kingdom, to increase domestic tuition, with the principal of Universities UK stating that “the £12,000 to £13,000 figure is very much within our proposals.” Why should students have to pay for universities’ irresponsible management of their finances and competitive mission of institutional and commercial growth?
There needs to be a complete institutional reassessment of what our universities are here to provide. Through the introduction of fees, the government has commercialised the sector, turning students into assets and shifting the priorities of the sector away from education towards growth and financial success. While increased participation in higher education needs to remain a top priority, this can’t be just a numbers game of adding more paying customers to a balance sheet. The focus should be on the provision of high-quality education, skills, and research.
“Old College, University of Edinburgh (24923171570)” by LWYang from USA is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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The Commodification of Students
New Labour, as part of its 2001 manifesto, announced its target to dramatically increase the number of young adults going into higher education. Central to this policy, working on the recommendations of the 1997 Dearing report, was the introduction of higher variable fees in 2004, which could be up to £3,000 per year, having first introduced a £1000 fee in 1998. While rooted in the idea of social mobility and widening participation in higher education, this move led to an unintended shift in focus in which students became increasingly viewed as competitive assets, with which University leaders can build their institutions and inflate their often dubiously linked investment portfolios.
Universities ceased to be focused on delivering high-quality education and began to focus on growth, competing aggressively to attract new students by spending money on needless passion projects, such as the Teviot redevelopment, that they can use to attract students. Issues that actually impact the students’ experience, such as paying our academic staff a fair wage and avoiding strikes or controlling the costs of housing, move to the background, as they have little impact on new admissions.
This strive for growth has also led UK universities to become financially overly reliant on their highest-paying students. As of this academic year, new undergraduate international students at the University of Edinburgh can expect to pay anything from £28,000 to £51,961 a year for their education. On the university balance sheets, this means that Scottish-domestic students provide only 14.6 per cent of the fees, compared to the highest paying international students, with other UK-domestic students providing only a little more at 18.4 per cent.
For an institution that now looks increasingly like a commercial enterprise, boasting an endowment of £580 million, an increase of £415.5 million since just after the introduction of fees in 1999, this dependence is hardly a surprise. While not an issue at face value, this dependence has led Universities to strategically prioritise high-fee income streams that can easily fluctuate, placing their position and, in some cases, existence at risk. A post-Brexit fall in the number of international students has left the sector in extreme peril, with the Office for Students reporting that more than 40% of universities in England are expecting to be in a financial deficit by this summer.
This has resulted in calls from Universities UK, an advocacy organisation for universities in the United Kingdom, to increase domestic tuition, with the principal of Universities UK stating that “the £12,000 to £13,000 figure is very much within our proposals.” Why should students have to pay for universities’ irresponsible management of their finances and competitive mission of institutional and commercial growth?
There needs to be a complete institutional reassessment of what our universities are here to provide. Through the introduction of fees, the government has commercialised the sector, turning students into assets and shifting the priorities of the sector away from education towards growth and financial success. While increased participation in higher education needs to remain a top priority, this can’t be just a numbers game of adding more paying customers to a balance sheet. The focus should be on the provision of high-quality education, skills, and research.
“Old College, University of Edinburgh (24923171570)” by LWYang from USA is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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