British universities are under attack from the government (that’s what they say – of course the government says something different) but there is no doubt here in the UK that the situation for people going onto study at university is going to be rather different over the coming years. The story of the last few years has been of increasing numbers of school leavers going onto university (Tony Blair’s government was aiming at 50% of all school leavers going onto higher education) and ever increasing numbers of international students also coming to do degrees. The universities are now under attack form many different directions – increasingly difficult for international students to get visas, limited places for UK students (perhaps 20,000 places short this year), possibilities of a raising or abolition of the cap on tuition fees for UK students (currently at £3250 a year) and most recently a cap on the pay of all the staff working in universities – so potentially a demoralised staff!

Given that most students still think it’s worth the investment in a university education and it seems to still be the case that graduates earn more over their lifetime than the education costs them, what does the future hold. There was a report in the Independent this week of a student just about to graduate, and having calculated that his degree cost £29000 is wondering seriously whether it will be worth it! Read about it here. The situation with international students has been well reported – as it becomes more and more difficult for international students to get visas, for example to progress from language school courses to university courses this huge area of fee income of the universities (remembering these students pay about 3 times as much as their UK counterparts).

Given that our European neighbours are still investing in universities and opportunities will get ever more competitive universities are having to be more and more inventive to ensure their own futures. One of the areas they are now looking into in ever increasing numbers is the possibility of doing a degree by distance learning – so gaining the skills and knowledge but being able to work at the same time – and with all the cost savings this entails. Again in the independent you can read a story reporting on a speech made recently by the new education minister laying out how important the government sees this – doing distance degrees from further education colleges. You’ll see in the article that the University of London has been offering degrees this way for over 150 years and includes amongst its alumni Nelson Mandela!

At UIC we are aware of the need for learning materials which students can access online or before they come – or after they leave. We also know that not everyone is lucky enough to have the opportunity to come to London to improve their English. So if you are interested in finding out more about our on-line support, get in touch.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 24th, 2010 at 9:27 am and is filed under Learning English, UIC London. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.