Recent information about academic cuts at Oxford University has caused controversy over the necessity of its decision to charge £9,000 a year in tuition fees.

Figures published last Thursday by the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) reveal that Oxford is expected to face a reduction in funding of just 1% in real terms.

Cambridge is seeing its funding cut by only 3%, whereas City University in London is suffering a 10.8% cut. The worst hit university, with its funding slashed by 15.8%, is Bishop Grossteste in Lincoln, which has announced that it will charge tuition fees of £7,500 for most of its courses from 2012.

However, Sir Alan Langlands, Chief Executive of HEFCE, suggested that the universities with the smallest funding changes are those with high levels of world-leading research and significant financial support from charities and businesses.

It is expected that Oxford University will receive £7.3 million less from HEFCE next year. Yet in 2009-10, government funding only formed 23% of the institution\’s income.

External research contracts and grants made up 40%, bringing in £367 million.

Furthermore, the university appears to be benefiting from an increase in charitable donations. Statistics released last week in the Ross-CASE Survey show that in 2009-10 Oxford and Cambridge accounted for half of all new charitable funds secured by universities, despite overall charitable donations to UK universities having dropped by £20 million.

This information has caused some to question the university\’s decision to raise tuition fees to £9,000 per year as a method of generating further income.

Rachel Farnsworth, a first year PPE student, commented, \”I absolutely dont think it\’s necessary – if Oxford wanted to, they could easily charge less, and I bet the people donating would want some of it spent on undergrads.

\”I think they\’re just playing a game of one-upmanship with Cambridge over fees really!\’

The university predicts that the highest departmental cut, of £5.1 million, will be to \”Old & Historic Buildings Allocation\”, something which has little impact on the teaching and research of academic departments.

However, a spokesperson for Oxford University said that the raise in fees would help \”to safeguard the future of our transformative education system.\”

\”Oxford students also enjoy exceptional facilities for learning thanks to a combination of college and University provision. All of this costs a huge amount of money, and Oxford is absolutely committed to maintaining this provision.\”

With other prestigious institutions, such as Cambridge, Durham and Imperial College London, having all declared that they will be raising tuition fees to the maximum of £9000 per year, it has been argued that the decision of Oxford University is necessary as a means of preserving its reputation.

Lincoln college student, Adam Rachlin, agreed that \”raising tuition fees to £9,000 per year is a necessary step to keep Oxford a first rate university\”.

He added, \”however, the extent to which access is increased will be the marker for how fair the system is, and from what I\’ve heard so far Oxford will have large schemes to improve access.\”

In a statement from the Vice-Chancellor, it was said that \”after public funding cuts, the proposals [to charge £9,000 tuition fees] only bring in £10 million of real extra income, of which 70% goes on new spending on student support and access.\”

 

 

The government has been warned that it may have to spend almost £1 billion more than expected over the next four years to cover tuition fees costs, as more universities announce their move to charge the maximum threshold.

Bath, University College London, Birmingham and Lancaster have now joined the growing list of universities who have stated their intention to charge the maximum tuition fees of £9000, starting in 2012.

Lancaster University has justified its decision as a reflection of its teaching and research standing. Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings commented, \”The fee level will allow the university to build on the high level of education and university experience that we currently offer our students.\”

However, not all at the university are happy with the decision. One Lancaster student told Cherwell, \”I just don\’t think raising fees is the right thing to do. We\’ll put people off from going to university and that\’s not good in the long run.\”

Of 23 universities who have so far announced their fee decisions for 2012 onwards, nineteen have declared their intention to move to the £9,000 maximum. This includes Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter, Essex, Surrey, Sussex, Manchester, Warwick, Aston, Reading, Liverpool John Moore and Leeds Metropolitan.

David Willets, the government\’s Universities Minister, had previously stated that £9,000 fees would be charged only in \”exceptional cases.\” However, the number of universities moving to the new threshold has threatened an imbalance in government funding of around £1 billion.

Gareth Thomas, the shadow universities minister, commented, \”It is increasingly clear that the government are powerless to stop universities charging £9,000. This will push up average estimates on which the government\’s spending plans are based, requiring deeper cuts elsewhere in the higher education budget.\”

Critics fear that the initial outlay will have to be paid for in other cuts to higher education, including cuts in research and fewer university places.

The government has already announced national higher education cuts of £940 million, including a 66% reduction in the science capital budget. Universities will face a 9.5% cut compared with the current academic year, including a 6% loss in teaching budgets.

Willets has suggested that the coalition is considering plans to create an \”opportunities fund.\” This would enable the government to allocate more places to institutions that offer cheaper courses, in an attempt to reign in the movement of universities towards the new maximum fees.

A spokesperson for the University of Oxford told Cherwell that, \”Whatever the updated arrangements, Oxford is committed to funding undergraduate teaching.\”

 

This week, journalist, economist, political analyst and author Will Hutton was named the new Principal of Hertford College, to start this Trinity term.

As a public figure best known for his role on BBC programmes such as Newsnight and his editorship of the Observer, Hutton’s status as a high profile personality makes him an interesting choice for a college which prides itself on being one of the most progressive at Oxford.

The college’s Senior Fellow, Dr Toby Barnard, said, “Hertford is delighted to have Will Hutton as its next Principal. He promises to continue and enhance the college’s enviable reputation for innovation, open access, friendliness and intellectual distinction.

“There is foul weather ahead for all universities, but particularly for Oxford colleges. Hertford is confident that, with Will Hutton’s dynamism and experience of public life, it will emerge from the impending storms much strengthened.”

Hutton himself seemed excited at the prospect of serving “a great Oxford college at a pre-eminent world university,” citing, “a genuine meeting of minds between the fellowship and myself that is exhilarating.”

He has spent the last decade at the helm of The Work Foundation, a not-for-profit think-tank that aims to improve the performance and quality of working life, and has also written many books on economic and political subjects.

Academically, Hutton’s experience is equally varied, as a governor of London School of Economics, a visiting professor at the University of Manchester Business School and the University of Bristol, and a visiting fellow at Mansfield College Oxford.

Hertford’s JCR President, James Weinberg commented that, “[Hutton’s] emphasis on facilitating and participating in open discussion and debate was a delight to hear and would not only foster greater cohesion within Hertford but would inject vitality into college life.”

He added, that Mr Hutton “will not be afraid to ‘rock the boat’ in defence of our collective principles” and that, “that enthusiasm and determination is exactly what Hertford needs to make things happen, both internally and externally.”

As Principal, Mr. Hutton will have overall responsibility for students’ academic work, as well as an interest in their wider activities – social, sporting, cultural, political. He will also lead the various staff teams in college, and represent the college in the university and beyond.

Whilst many students will welcome the renowned economist and successful public intellectual into their midst, some still harboured doubts about his appointment.

An undergraduate student, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that Will Hutton’s long and recent involvement with The Work Foundation “from many perspectives has been detrimental due to that very fact that he would like to turn everything into a thinktank.

“This, I feel, could really affect Hertford as a college in that it is a notoriously active one (on all sorts of fronts – political, charity, etc), and the fact that a principal might not endorse that, or might have little understanding of that feeling, is worrying.”

However, in a report written after interviewing the candidates for Principal, Weinberg concluded, “If we want to be put on the map…if we want someone with drive and originality, as well as the channels through which to exercise it in our favour; then Will Hutton is the man for the job.”

Whether Hutton can live up to such high expectations and praise, or whether he will struggle against the impending tide of higher education cuts, and the idiosyncrasies of Oxford life, remains to be seen.

The government has released a revised set of visa proposals which aim to curb the number of foreign students in Britain by around 100,000 a year.

The coalition believes that the new proposals offer compromises on their more stringent original plans, which were met with hostility by universities nationally. Home Secretary Theresa May said that significant changes were necessary to combat abuses in the system and to reduce annual net migration.

The measures, which will be implemented from April, will include alterations to the post-study work route and restrictions on which students can bring dependants to the UK with them. There will be tighter regulations for private colleges wishing to sponsor overseas students, in order to prevent enrolment at bogus colleges.

The concessions offered include scrapping the plan for an arbitrary cap on student migration and allowing some students to stay in the UK after graduation. Revised measures will enable students with the offer of a graduate-level job paying at least £20,000 a year to stay on to work.

Additionally, whilst there will be tougher English language requirements in place for those who wish to study in the UK, universities will be able to introduce their own tests for potential students.

A spokesperson for Oxford University said, ‘We welcome the proposals regarding the changes to the student immigration system and are satisfied that our serious concerns were listened to carefully by the Government.

‘The changes announced will ensure that we continue to attract the most intellectually able international students to Oxford and that students will still have the opportunity to take up graduate level jobs after completing their studies.’

Nevertheless there remains opposition to the proposals. Colin Jackson, OUSU’s International Students Officer said, ‘While some of the more egregious proposals (requiring that students physically return home to extend their stay, not allowing universities to vouch for students’ ability to speak English, etc.) have been done away with, the tone – and more importantly the effect – of these proposals still belies what I see as hostility towards international students.’

Clare Joyce, an American PPE student, told Cherwell, ‘It is important to remember that there are already many obstacles for non-EU students seeking to pursue their studies in the UK … The ability to attract the best and the brightest, regardless of their home country, to Oxford, is a substantial part of what keeps Oxford globally competitive in an age where that competition has become more intense than ever.’

Similarly, Vartan Shadarevian, a first-year student at University College, said, ‘International students on graduation, by virtue of their degree, are some of the best educated immigrants in the country. They pay much higher international fees, and throughout their time of study pay living and accommodation costs, pouring huge sums of money into the British economy … foreign students represent the most welcome form of immigration, and treating them as other immigrants is an ill advised, ill thought-out policy direction.’