Photo by Polycart via Flickr

Last week I went to another Alliance university, Bournemouth, to give a lecture on what we can do, as a sector, to make the reality live up to the rhetoric of the White Paper in order to put students more profoundly at the heart of the system.

“If we are serious about putting students at the heart of the system we would need to look beyond this consumerist approach.”

The Coalition Government’s complete overhaul of the student finance system is, after all, not only based on our diminished public finances but on the widespread perception, held by successive Ministers, that the quality of the student experience had become a secondary consideration by many in the sector.  A wide range of organisations, the CBI as well as the National Student Forum (now defunct), the Select Committee as well as the Secretary of State, all expressed concern that priorities in higher education had shifted away from the provision of high quality learning and teaching.  The answer, Ministers – and Lord Browne – decided, was to put the finance in the hands of students to drive demand and improve quality.  A new ‘consumer’ based relationship would be born.

In Bournemouth, I argued that if we are serious about putting students at the heart of the system we would need to look beyond this consumerist approach. In Alliance universities we are working hard to ensure that students understand and take advantage of the widest possible range of the activities on offer, exploiting the potential for their academic work to connect with employers or with university staff and students overseas.  The relationship that students must have with the University, through its professionals, is that of co-creator – not the much contested term, consumer – if they are to shape their own experience and derive as much benefit from higher education as possible.

“It is not a simple consumerist relationship – students have to be involved in the development of their programme of activities.” 

Students look for all kinds of additional opportunities to enhance their academic achievements and it is the case that they increasingly value work experience, especially when that work experience is related to their area of study.  For students in subjects like History the absence of a professional body or an obvious set of professional destinations need not be a hindrance to engagement with employers.  Students in that discipline at Oxford Brookes, for instance, have had all kinds of project and work based opportunities with the extensive heritage organisations based in Oxford.  We have the evidence that graduates are much more likely to get their first choice of job if they take up some of the rich opportunities – for study or work abroad, research based project work, volunteering, placement learning, leadership in teams or societies, language learning – which are a part of the University premium that distinguishes us from new, for profit entrants to the market. It is not a simple consumerist relationship – students have to be involved in the development of their programme of activities in and out of the classroom or library.

But one of the most striking things about this approach is that it is not new, but built on decades, even centuries, of experience. Alliance universities have a rich heritage in this approach, many formed in the 19th Century to respond to the skills needed in the then changing and growing industrial economy.  Many of the features of higher education 20 years ago in institutions like Oxford Brookes – modular degrees, accreditation of work based learning, engagement of the professions in curriculum development, access to personalised learning – are common today in all our universities. So much of the work we were doing then remains central to the added value of a university education today.

“Time spent in higher education is not all about employment but about acquiring the capacity for reinvention.”

In 1991 our 5000 undergraduates were on individual programmes of study, tailored to their interests and needs.  Today students need to exercise many kinds of fine discriminations – as well as expending the blood, sweat and tears required by serious intellectual effort – about which of the wide range of opportunities available to them will add most to their experience and their future prospects.  Time spent in higher education is not all about employment but about acquiring the capacity for reinvention – of self, of society – in the broadest possible sense. It is about developing the capacity for rational argument, for well-founded research, for articulate and persuasive advocacy. But, equally as important is making the most of the opportunities on offer at university allowing students to develop to the full the potential for leading a substantial and well-rounded life (see examples on our student stories site) – an ambition to which we all aim to contribute and not one that can be reduced to a simple, consumer transaction.

It is popularly agreed that ‘there are too many graduates’ in the UK. It is important to look at the evidence behind this claim as getting this right has big implications for the direction government policy should take as well as for individuals and the wider society. Seeking to increase the proportion of the UK workforce with degrees would be a waste of public (and, increasingly, private) funds if there really are ‘too many graduates’. Equally, moves to increase other forms of education and training or encouraging moves straight into the workforce at the expense of higher education could be detrimental to individuals, the economy and society if we do in fact need more graduates than we currently have.

However, the UK economy is not presenting any of the labour market signals that would suggest there are too many graduates in the economy. Graduate vacancies continue to grow. Jobs in ‘graduate dense’ occupations are an increasing proportion of the total workforce. Graduate employment rates have been maintained despite the rapid expansion in the number of graduates. Added to all this there is still a significant graduate premium. Contrary to popular belief, the evidence suggests that there is a shortage of graduates in the UK not too many.

This is interesting and worth reflecting on. However, the question that decision makers need to be asking is ‘what next?’ What is the bigger picture? Investing in universities isn’t primarily about short term gain (although there is some of that). It is about investing in the longer term future of individuals, the economy and society. Forecasts show that most growth in the labour market over the next decade will be in jobs typically performed by graduates. Advances in technology are changing the way we work and the type of work we do. Routine tasks within occupations are being automated or outsourced. Highly innovative businesses account for a disproportionate amount of overall business growth. And it is typically graduates who have the attributes and qualities to adapt and perform best in this emerging innovation landscape.

If you see higher education as a luxury good it would make perfect sense to limit or reduce the number of student places – an exclusive experience for the lucky, wealthy or very deserving few. But higher education is not a luxury good. It is a public good. The future labour market will need increasing numbers of graduates. As workers are displaced from routine occupations we can either open up routes into higher education to facilitate upwards mobility or we can risk seeing increased competition at the low end of the labour market, contributing to increased unemployment and difficulty in finding entry level jobs.

Demand is high. Applying market logic would see the total number of student places increased. Instead they have been quietly cut by around 24,000 places compared with last year.  Budgets may be limited but we should be stating the case for increasing the budget for higher education in future years. Until then we need to think creatively about how to increase the total number of well-funded, high quality student places to meet current and future need for more graduates in the UK – answers on a postcard to 1 Victoria Street.

It is nothing new that the internet is changing everything. The way we do business, learn and interact with one another is increasingly dictated by digital developments. But what is remarkable about this new research is the scale and pace of this change within developing and emerging countries. The report says that nearly half of the world’s population will be online by 2016, with access to the internet becoming less of a luxury, limited to users in the developed world, and more of an everyday reality in emerging economies.

The challenges and opportunities this creates for the UK are huge. Traditional business models and ways of working need to quickly adapt and respond to both technological advances and the opening up of access to global customers. Paul Zwillenberg of BCG says that entrepreneurs building a digital business are outperforming rivals who do not embrace the web.

The UK must ensure it maintains its position as global leaders in innovative, high-tech business. Currently the UK’s internet economy is larger than in any other country and it is forecast to grow 10% per year for the next four years, and contribute 10% of UK’s GDP by 2015.

Our leaders, from Government, industry and academia, need to agree and set out a clear strategy for how we do this. Addressing leaders at Davos, Parick Pichete, Google’s chief financial officer, said:

“Understanding the economic potential of the web should be an urgent priority for leaders… [with] a powerful case for countries and companies to get online and reap the rewards of an age of data”.

Government needs to build on the momentum it has created this year in securing and sustaining the UK’s position as leaders in the global, digital economy. We had Universities’ minister, David Willetts’ speech on hi-tech growth. And then yesterday’s announcement from the Technology Strategy Board about the new Connected Digital Economy Catapult technology and innovation centre.

But at the same time, Government needs to explain how reducing university places, and ultimately the number of graduates coming out of our higher education system, fits within this economic vision. Our global competitors are increasing the number of graduates in the workforce to grow their capacity for economic growth. Emerging economies get this; India, for example, wants to more than double the size of its university system to become a “knowledge powerhouse”, increasing the country’s student population from 12 million to over 30 million. And it is not just in the fast-growing, tiger economies but right across Europe, the US and Australia Governments are undertaking ambitious strategies to ensure they will have sufficient high-level skills to grow their economies once again. In a recent speech on EU higher education policy Barroso said:

“We see in Europe the number of skilled jobs outnumbering the supply of students with higher education qualifications. While 35 per cent of all jobs in the EU will require high-level qualification by 2020, only 26 per cent of the workforce currently has a higher education qualification.”

Clearly Government plays a critical role here (especially while it holds the reigns on student numbers), but the higher education sector must stand up to this challenge too. Our aim at University Alliance is to open up dialogue between universities, Government and business to tackle these challenges. As a higher education sector we need to work with business to identify and deliver the capabilities required in a growing digital economy, and to highlight where Government intervention is required. Alliance universities have a rich heritage in this approach, many formed in the 19^th Century to respond to the skills needed in the then changing and growing industrial economy. We are working closely as partners in the Big Innovation Centre, who are exploring many of these issues. But beyond this we need to take leadership to look at the bigger questions facing our sector if we are going to be fit for purpose, able to deliver the knowledge framework needed to remain global leaders in the digital economy.

It is time for thought leaders across the political, business, academic and charity worlds to work together, to think long term about how we remain global leaders and ensure that we have the knowledge and capability in place so to reap the rewards of the digital age.

Green packaging by Kevin Dooley, Flickr

Despite turbulent economic times in 2012, there is a bigger global picture that will have a greater impact on the future of higher education: the rapid acceleration of new technology, innovation, design and new knowledge.

The rapid acceleration of new technology will have a bigger impact on HE than economic crisis

The same thing could have (and has) been said for many years now but it is the accelerated pace of change that will define the future of our universities – much more so than immediate economic conditions or successive government changes to university funding. Yes, 2012 will see the beginning of a new era of increased contributions from graduates (although none of this will be paid up-front by students in 2012 of course) and universities, as businesses, will feel the impact of a difficult economic climate. However, what drives a freight train through this short-term turbulence is a long-term trajectory of the increasing economic impact of our universities and graduates. Universities are no longer just about generating new knowledge within a protected academic environment. The ivory towers have fallen. All of our universities are working closely with new industries, design and technologies to make new discoveries that will change lives and tackle global challenges; playing a central role in both our economy and society.

My prediction for 2012 is that the new student finance arrangements will begin with much less disruption than expected and that the UK higher education sector will continue to adapt, challenge and drive change in a way that benefits our society and economy. I also think that our sector, robust and with a long history of evolution, not revolution, will continue to demonstrate excellence in the traditions that it preserves as well as the barriers it breaks down in driving progress.

Libby Hackett’s prediction for 2012 is included in the Guardian HE Network article, ‘What does 2012 hold for Higher Education policy?’. 

The Chancellor faces a huge challenge in tomorrow’s Autumn Statement. One of the critical areas he will need to address is the short-term crisis of soaring youth unemployment whilst at the same time setting out the long-term strategy to keep the UK’s labour market globally competitive. This is crying out for some joined-up thinking.

Youth unemployment figures hitting the one million mark was indeed a wake-up call and urgent action must be taken to address this issue. Apprenticeships are the government’s primary response to get young people into work or training along with other direct incentives to employers likely to be announced in the Chancellor’s statement on Tuesday. While these measures are an essential part of tackling this crisis by getting young people into work, there is another element that is pulling in the opposite direction – if left alone, this could have dire longterm consequences for our capacity for economic growth.

University places down by 10,000

Whilst investing in thousands of new apprenticeships and giving direct incentives to employers with one hand, the Government is taking away 10,000 university places available to young people through the University Modernisation Fund.

Some might argue this is the correct response to the anticipated fall in applications to university this year but they would be wrong (see latest 2012 UCAS application figures here). In a modern, global, high-tech economy, it is human capital that is now the most accurate indicator of the UK’s future economic growth. At a time when our global competitors are increasing the number of graduates in the workforce to increase their capacity for economic growth, how can the UK justify a reduction in places available to young people – especially when there are such high levels of youth unemployment?

India, for example, wants to more than double the size of its university system to become a “knowledge powerhouse”, increasing the country’s student population from 12 million to over 30 million. And it is not just in the fast-growing, tiger economies but right across Europe, the US and Australia Governments are undertaking ambitious strategies to ensure they will have sufficient high-level skills to grow their economies once again. In a recent speech on EU higher education policy Barroso said:

“We see in Europe the number of skilled jobs outnumbering the supply of students with higher education qualifications. While 35 per cent of all jobs in the EU will require high-level qualification by 2020, only 26 per cent of the workforce currently has a higher education qualification.”

“We cannot afford to lose a generation of young people not being either employed, studying or in training. Europe needs young brains. This is why we have set an ambitious but realistic target on educational attainment in the Europe 2020 strategy.”

Beyond drop in applications

Of course we are aware that early indications suggest a slight drop in applications to university for 2012/13, no doubt as a result of widespread misunderstanding about the new student finance system. However, we must not forget how many young people were turned away last year because there were not enough places for them. Even with the anticipated reduction in applications, there will still be thousands of young people who will be unable to find a place at university this summer and will join the growing number who are unemployed.  This is not good for them and it is certainly not good for the UK economy.

Urgent action is needed by this Government. The Chancellor has the opportunity to demonstrate some clear, joined up thinking tomorrow in the Autumn statement. Increasing the number of university places available will have a direct impact on youth unemployment whilst increasing the UK’s capacity for economic growth. No-one is suggesting these are easy decisions to make but for the individuals involved and for the future prosperity of the UK, they are critical.

No upfront money is asked for:  the Student Loan Company (SLC) automatically pay the tuition fees. No student will ever be asked to pay upfront. This is true even if someone has the money in the bank to pay for the course.

“The system is similar to no win, no fee. If you don’t benefit, you don’t contribute” Liz Shutt, University Alliance

Living costs are taken care of: students can apply for an annual loan of up to £5,550 for day-to-day living costs. If their family income is under £42,600 they will also get a living grant (money you don’t have to pay back) of up to £3,250.

No win, no fee: graduates only pay back in relation to how much they benefit.  Unlike credit card or mortgage style loans, there is no risk to taking the loans out because if you are never in a position to pay it back you won’t have to.

No debt collectors: money is taken direct from the wage, just like tax.

In 30 years:  loans are wiped out completely, even if not a penny has been paid back.

The repayments are manageable and affordable: graduates will only be asked to pay 9% of their earnings over £21,000. So if a graduate earns £25,000 as a starting salary they will only pay 9% of £4,000 over the year, that’s only 99p a day.

It should never be a burden: no-one will ever be forced to pay the full amount back if they can’t afford to do so.

The price of a course should not be a factor in a decision: prospective students need to pick the course and university that is right for them, not make a decision based on the cost. Choosing a £6,000 course over a £9,000 course will not change the amount you will be expected to pay back each month because…

…The amount paid back each month is based on income and is unrelated to the amount borrowed: if two friends graduate and earn £23,000 they will both have to pay back the same amount each month, even if one friend has a bigger student loan.

University has a hugely transformational effect on most students. The biggest thing to remember with the new system is that no one should be put off applying from university because of financial concerns. If someone has the ability and desire to go, then university is for them.

Universities need your help in order to tackle the confusion over the tuition fees. Make sure that you help spread the right message to families and prospective students. Together we can tackle the ‘myths’ and ensure that young people and mature learners have the facts.

With thanks to Martin Lewis and the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information.

Please note that this competition is only open to staff and students from Alliance universities.

Overview:
To design the front cover for University Alliance’s 2011 Christmas card. The winner, as well as designing our new card, will receive a £50 Amazon gift voucher and will be credited on the back the card which will be seen by hundreds of key figures, including MPs, leading business executives and university Vice-Chancellors.
Our theme for the 2011 competition is ‘Growth’. Participants will need to provide a 50 word summary of how the front cover fits this theme.

Schedule:
The competition will open on Monday 7th November 2011 and close at midday on Friday 18th November 2011.

Submission:
Send image to info@university-alliance.ac.uk with the subject line ‘Christmas Card Competition’. Please include name, course/occupation and name of university.

Competition rules:
1. This contest is open to students and staff at University Alliance institutions.
2. A maximum of two front covers will be accepted per entrant.
3. The University Alliance logo should be included somewhere on the front cover. To download please click here. The brand can be used with the grey replaced with any of the colours in the palette (the white in the middle must remain – see our Twitter page for examples http://twitter.com/#!/UniAlliance).
4. Include a paragraph (50 word limit) about the image, what it is/what inspired it.
5. Entries must be submitted as a JPEG/GIF image with a 300dpi ratio to be printed on A5.
6. Can be graphics/photography/artwork but must be original and belong to entrant. Animations for the web version can be submitted as long as an image at 300dpi is submitted along with it. Any entrants under 18 must have written parental consent to submit an image.
7. The University Alliance team will judge the competition and decide on the winner. The runners up will be posted on our website along with the winning image.
8. The winning image will become property of University Alliance.
9. Covers will be judged on their design as well as how well they fit the ‘growth’ brief.
10. The winner will be published on our website on Tuesday 22nd November.
11. The winner will also be contacted directly to arrange receipt of their prize.

Questions:
Questions and enquiries about competition rules can be emailed to Louisa – lcarpenter@university-alliance.ac.uk

Students at Plymouth University

There has been much reported on the impact that increased fees will have on university applications for 2012-13. University Alliance believes that no one should be put off from going to university because of financial concerns or the myth that demand for graduates will dry up. We strongly believe that the value of a degree is worth the investment for individuals and society, raising hopes and prospects for the future, and the economy, as graduates continue to drive growth.

The truth is, students will not to pay up front fees in order to attend university. For first time undergraduates, once your application has been processed, tuition fees are automatically paid and you will only have to pay this back after graduation and if you earn annually above £21,000 in pre-tax salary.

However students themselves quite rightly ask what they are getting in return for the investment in universities and universities haven’t always been good at explaining or demonstrating this. This is partly because the very aspects that are so valuable and unique about universities, that make the investment so worthwhile, can often seem intangible. Here at University Alliance, we wanted to find a better way of describing it; so we asked the students.

Find out more on our Student Stories.

The Alliance held numerous events at conferences attended by Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), in Birmingham, David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Skills, in Manchester and John Denham, previously Shadow Secretary of State for BIS, in Liverpool.

Party conferences are just one forum in which University Alliance are working with decision makers from all political parties. We will be continuing to have a healthy dialogue with politicians to raise understanding of Alliance universities and the role they play in the regional and national economy.

Follow us on Twitter and keep up-to-date with all the latest news from the alliance #unialliance

‘Growing the future: universities leading, changing and creating the regional economy’ launches at the start of the three major UK party conferences with the aim of informing the debate that will no doubt be at the top of each agenda: how to support growth and recovery in the UK economy.

We are confident that universities will be critical – far beyond educating our future graduates (important though this is). Of course there are plenty of statistics we could have referred to. I could tell you that income from knowledge exchange activity between UK universities, business and other users increased by 35% over the last decade or how with a revenue of £23.3 billion in 2007-08, UK higher education generated over £59 billion of output to the UK economy.

However, I am hoping that it will be all the more powerful to hear it from BMW, from IBM, from Centrica, from the North East Chamber of Commerce or from Bournemouth County Council. While these contributions focus on the harder edge of impact on business and strategy, others, such as the contributions from Sir Patrick Stewart and Angela Saini, author of ‘Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking Over the World’ tell a more personal tale tracking their growing understanding of the role universities play. Altogether they tell the story in a more tangible and concrete way than any set of statistics could do.

The contributions are centred around five different themes that aim to capture exactly what we mean when we talk about universities having broad and deep influence. ‘Regional leadership and ‘anchor’ capacity’ shows how universities have fundamentally shaped the character of the places where they are located. ‘Change agents: starting, growing and supporting enterprise’ demonstrates how universities are both part of a region’s history and its future. ‘Creating and diffusing research-led innovation’ discusses how universities not only generate new ideas but also translate and diffuse it so that it has real impact. ‘Knowledge workforce’ reinforces the fact that high-level skills are of crucial importance to productivity growth, particularly in a developed economy. Finally, ‘Attracting inward investment’ looks at the often overlooked role of universities as one of the UK’s major export industries, leveraging investment for the UK economy.

By telling the story of real and meaningful engagement within universities, these contributors highlight the importance of universities to our future growth in a way that the universities themselves or indeed University Alliance could not. I have learned an enormous amount myself through the project about the real way that these partnerships are working across the UK – I hope you will too!