Universities: the access and

funding challenge

Professor Janet Beer

3 December 2013

What we will cover?

Celebrating Robbins, but are we there yet?

What are the big picture policy challenges over the

next 5 years?

What does this mean for the sector?

The Robbins Report 50 years on

The „Robbins principle‟

„courses of higher education should be available for all

those who are qualified by ability and attainment to

pursue them and who wish to do so‟ (Robbins, 1963,

2:31)

„modern societies can[not] achieve their aims of economic

growth and higher cultural standards without making the

most of the talents of their citizens.‟ (Robbins, 1963, 2:32)

Increase in participation

Gender

“The split between the sexes risks becoming a more serious problem than

the gulf in access to university traditionally seen between students from

rich and poor families, it was claimed. Mary Curnock Cook, chief

executive of UCAS, said that women were a third more likely to gain entry

to degree courses than men. In a speech, she warned that the gap would

continue to widen over the next decade. By 2025, the gulf in access

between men and women will actually be more pronounced than that seen

between deprived and wealthy students.”

(The Telegraph)

Trend in young participation rate for areas

classified by HE participation rates (POLAR 3)

What are the policy challenges?

Funding

•Continued pressure on public funding

• Funding growth

• Securing LT sustainability of loan system

• Sustained shortage of public investment in capital (Teaching)

•Delivery of world–class student experience

•Maintaining research funding

Regulation and governance

• Shifts in regulatory architecture

• Intensifying competition

•Conflicting public policy agendas

•Changes to UK constitutional structure

•General Election 2015

•HE Bills

Aspiration and attainment

•Persistent correlation between social class and attainment

•14-19 reform across UK

•Ethnicity: pervasive differences between performance of different ethnic groups

•Gender: under-achievement of white working-class boys

Will expanding graduates benefit the

UK economy?

HE innovation

and growth

Positive relationship between enrolment rates and growth

Higher levels skills are crucial to productivity

Graduates and postgraduates

create new ideas

Innovative capacity

Future demand for graduate-

level skills

Suitable labour market and industrial

societies

The funding and access challenge

4. Increase in

private sources of

funding

2. Sustainability of

the overall loan

system

3. Additional funding

for capital and

infrastructure costs

required

1. Increase public

sector net borrowing

or redirect BIS cash

spend

Principles for developing a new system

Student funding system

Student number control

No student to be disadvantaged by

background

Public – private finance models

Alternative forms of funding

System to cover all institutions

Tuition fees

1963 Robbins’ view on higher

education system

• “….instruction in skills; the promotion of the

general powers of the mind so as to produce

not mere specialists but rather cultivated men

and women; to maintain research in balance

with teaching, since teaching should not be

separated from the advancement of learning

and the search for truth; and to transmit a

common culture and common standards of

citizenship”

Any questions?