Higher university fees ‘will add £100bn to public debt’

BBC |May 18, 2012

By Hannah Richardson BBC News education reporter

_

Plans to allow universities to charge up to £9,000 tuition fees could push public sector debt up by up to £100bn over the next 20 years, a report says.

Students at England’s universities will be able to take out government-backed loans covering the higher fees, as teaching grants are slashed from 2012.

The government insists its plans are sustainable, and predicts student loan debt will peak at £50bn in 2030.

But a study warns it could be double that.

The report by Andrew McGettigan, for the Intergenerational Foundation, analyses the impact of lending students fees to pay their loans, and allowing them to pay back once they start earning£21,000 a year.

‘National debt’

It says: “Replacing direct grants to universities with higher fees backed by higher loans reduces the relevant government department’s contribution to the deficit.

“But the cost of government borrowing adds significantly to the national debt in the short and medium term.”

The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates the loans will cost £12bn a year by 2015-16.

This is an increase of £5 to 6bn a year and “eclipses” the£3bn savings achieved through the cuts announced to the teaching grant, the report says.

This means the policy of higher student loans costs as much as twice as much a year as the annual savings from cutting teaching grants.

The debt will only be repaid when enough graduates are repaying their loans. This is predicted to be in about 2032 by the OBR or eight years later in 2040 by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

‘No protection’

And there are already concerns about the assumptions made about how many graduates will earn enough to pay back their student debts of between £30,000 and £40,000.

The government is predicting that it will get back about 70% of the money it lends out.

But the report says: “Given the amounts, the complexities of the scheme and the long lifetimes of the loans, predicting patterns and levels of repayment is extremely difficult.”

This is something acknowledged by the government as it relies on a great number of assumptions about future events, economic growth and student behaviour.

And the report points out that if repayments are not made as expected, future governments could change the terms and conditions on the loans to balance the books.

It adds that those who will have already taken out loans “have no protection” against any changes to the terms of their loans.

And it adds that future student groups will have loans offered on much less generous terms.

It also claims the government is “secretly investigating” the possibility of selling off student loan liabilities and that under present legislation this can be done without carrying out a consultation.

The author also points out that as tuition fees are included in the basket of goods used to determine the Consumer Price Index raising them to a maximum of £9,000 will have an inflationary effect.

This alone could add £2.2bn to the social security budget by 2016, because payments are linked to inflation, at a time when the Chancellor has asked for £10bn savings from this area.

A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokesman said:“Our reforms put students at the heart of the system and university funding on to a sustainable footing.

“While the total cash expenditure on higher education will increase due to the extra lending to students, we also expect to receive higher repayments from them as graduates.

“The net impact is that the reforms help to reduce the deficit. Our modelling of student loan repayments is scrutinised by the independent Office for Budgetary Responsibility.”

But general secretary of the UCU lecturers’ union Sally Hunt said the report confirmed that the government’s punitive budget cuts have absolutely nothing to do with reducing the national debt and everything to do with shifting the funding of higher education from the state to the individual.

“Instead of being guided by ideology and adding billions to the national debt ministers should follow the example of other countries and invest in higher education.”

Should All Those Who Teach, Lecture or Tutor Have Professional Qualifications?

Lecturers should need a teaching qualification, says NUS president

On 22nd April 2012 the Guardian revealed a call by the NUS (National Union of Students) to make all university lecturers qualified teachers. NUS president Liam Burns was quoted as saying that it was “astonishing” that it wasn’t already a legal obligation for those who teach in higher education to have professional qualifications.  An area of concern is the increasing use of post-graduate students to deliver lectures and seminars by cash strapped universities and colleges.  Their view echoes the recommendation of the university funding review by Lord Browne in 2010 but this proposal was abandoned after objections were raised by the universities because they felt that it would compromise their institutional independence.

Should All Those Who Teach, Lecture or Tutor Have Professional Qualifications?

Yes!  We wholeheartedly agree with the views expressed by both the NUS and Lord Browne.  It is of great concern that post-graduate students are being used to deliver lectures in colleges and universities. But it is not only in higher and further education where we are seeing this worrying trend in the use of unqualified people delivering lessons. It is also becoming more and more common for primary schools to use teaching assistants to cover lessons during teachers’ absences rather than paying for supply teachers.

Why Are Schools, Colleges and Universities Using Unqualified Staff?

It is understandable, to a certain extent, that they are making use of unqualified personnel and it does appear to make sense on some levels.

• The argument for universities is that post-graduates have a proven sound knowledge of their subject which they can then pass on to their younger under-graduate colleagues.
• In primary schools, the use of teaching assistants (TAs) allows for stability for the children because they are being taught by somebody who they already know. And the teaching assistant will already have an understanding of the current curriculum that is being covered and therefore find it easier to step into the breach.
• It is cheaper to use non-qualified staff  and this cuts down on personnel costs for cash-starved educational establishments.

What Is Wrong With Using Unqualified Staff To Teach?

The main issue with this, is the widely held and incorrect assumption that having a sound knowledge of a subject enables you to teach it.  Knowing your facts and being able to impart them effectively are two different things entirely.  Anyone who has watched E4’s The Big Bang Theory and witnessed the genius Dr Sheldon Cooper’s wholly inadequate efforts to lecture students in his area of expertise will be able to relate to this immediately. Teachers go through 3 to 4 years of study in order to understand the principles of how people learn, how to put together effective lessons and how to assess the progress that has been made by their students.  A good teacher can then tailor their planning and teaching methods to suit the needs of their student/s according to ability, learning styles and how well or otherwise they have understood the topic.

No-one, however great an expert they may be in their field, will have these skills at their fingertips if they haven’t been trained to teach. Therefore, to use unqualified and untrained people in the classroom or lecture theatre means that students are not being taught adequately and are receiving a sub-standard education.  It is worth noting that with many primary schools now using TAs for teaching cover for 2.5 hours of PPA (planning, preparation and assessment) time each week a child is, on average, losing a month’s worth of qualified teaching time each year.

A further cause for concern is the fact that under current regulations anyone in the United Kingdom can set up in business as a tutor regardless of their educational training or qualifications.  At Kip McGrath Education Centres we recognise the need for the skills and teaching knowledge that accompany a professional teaching qualification in order to teach children effectively.  We believe that in order to improve education standards and maximise the potential for all children they must be taught by qualified professionals at every stage of their learning career. That is why at Kip McGrath we guarantee that all our students are always taught by qualified teachers.