Following the successful vote in the House of Commons on changes to graduate contributions for 2012/13, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable said:
"Today's (9th December) vote has been an important step in turning the Coalitions commitment to deliver a high-quality university sector that is more responsive to the needs of students into a reality.
"Under our proposals no student will have to pay upfront for tuition and both parties in the Coalition have worked hard to develop a much fairer and progressive graduate contribution scheme. Graduates will only begin to repay the cost of their tuition and living support once they are in high earning jobs, with significant discounting for those on low and modest incomes."
Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said:
"Our higher education reforms have struck a fair balance between ensuring we advance social mobility and properly fund our world-class universities
"The package is fair for students, fair for graduates and affordable for the nation. Next year the Government will publish a higher education White Paper covering the long-term issues arising from Lord Browne's report."
The key elements of the package are:
Graduate contribution
Any university or college will be able to charge a graduate contribution of up to £6,000.
In exceptional cases, universities will be able to charge higher contributions, up to a limit of £9,000, subject to meeting much tougher conditions on widening participation and fair access. It will be up to the university or college to decide what it charges, including whether it charges at different levels for different courses.
Any university or college will be able to charge below £6,000. Universities and colleges wanting to charge above £6,000 a year will have to show how they will spend some of the additional income making progress in widening participation and fair access. The Office for Fair Access will be able to apply sanctions in cases where universities do not deliver on the commitments in their access agreements, up to and including withdrawing the right of the university to charge more than £6,000.
Loans and maintenance grants
The Government will lend any eligible student the money to pay the university or college for tuition costs. For the first time, part-time students will be entitled to a loan and no longer forced to pay up-front costs, so long as they are studying for at least 25% of their time.
A new £150m National Scholarships Programme will be targeted at bright potential students from poor backgrounds. It will guarantee students benefits such as a free first year or foundation year.
Students from families with incomes of up to £25,000 will be entitled to a more generous student maintenance grant of £3,250 and those from families with incomes up to £42,000 will be entitled to a partial grant.
Maintenance loans will be available to all eligible full time students irrespective of income.
Further details of loan rates for students living at home, those living away from home and studying in London, and loans for longer courses will be provided in due course.
Students deferring from 2011/12 to 2012/13, will be able to apply for loans and grants at the 2012/13 rates. Tuition charges for 2012/13 will be determined by individual universities.
Part-time students
All eligible part-time undergraduates who study for at least 25% of their time will now be able to apply for a loan to cover the costs of their tuition which means you no longer have to pay up front
Part-time students will not however be eligible for maintenance support.
Repayment system
Graduates who have completed their studies and become one of the country's higher earners will make a higher contribution towards the cost of their education. That is because as their earning rise, so will the rate of interest applied to their loan balance.
Graduates will not make a contribution towards tuition costs until they are earning at least £21,000, up from the current £15,000. The repayment will be 9% of income above £21,000, and all outstanding repayments will be written off after 30 years. This means all graduates will pay less per month than they do under the current system. The £21,000 earnings threshold will also be uprated annually in line with earnings from April 2016 (when the majority of students who commence a three year degree course in September 2012 will become liable to repay.
In order to make the system financially sustainable, a real rate of interest will be charged on loan repayments, but with a progressive taper:
For graduates earning below £21,000, there will be no real rate of interest applied to their loan.
For graduates earning between £21,000 and around £41,000, a real rate of interest will start to be charged, reaching a maximum of RPI plus 3%.
Above £41,000, graduates will repay at the maximum, rate of RPI plus 3%.
Under our new more progressive repayment system, around a quarter of graduates, those with the lowest lifetime earnings, will pay less than under the current system.
The Government is committed to the progressive nature of the repayment system. It will consult on potential early repayment mechanisms so that people on high incomes are not able to unfairly buy themselves out of this progressive system. These mechanisms would need to ensure that graduates on modest incomes who strive to pay their contribution early through regular payments are not penalised.
If you are a graduate and currently repaying an income contingent loan your repayment threshold will rise in line with inflation from April 2012. For information on student loans read more It provides general advice and guidance to existing borrowers.
Enhanced focus on vocational skills will boost economy, say half of Brits
In contrast to the extremely negative reaction from the UK's student community, research conducted by Home Learning College shows that large sectors of the population see the benefit of increased tuition fees. Over half of adults (51%) believe higher fees will encourage more people into vocational study. A further 43% feel vocational qualifications are of greater value than degrees.
The survey -by the UK's biggest provider of professional distance learning - revealed that 54% think increasing the UK's vocational skills base will have a positive impact on the country's economy. This rises to 58% of men, while only 6% of all respondents were in disagreement.
When asked whether cuts to higher education and increased tuition fees are necessary to cut the UK's national debt, views became more polarised. Just over a third (35%) believes these measures are vital, while 27% are in disagreement. Again, differences of opinion are apparent between the sexes. Over two fifths of men (41%) support the cuts and rising fees as a strategy for cutting debt, in contrast to only 30% of women.
"The media has very much focused on how young people, and students in particular, have responded to proposals concerning higher education funding," says Dave Snow, Academic Director at Home Learning College. "However, our research shows that vast swathes of the population are either in favour of these changes, or can at least see potential benefits in the long run.
"The previous government has succeeded in making the younger generation feel as though university is the only route to success. Increased tuition fees will encourage school leavers to consider their options more carefully and to place greater value of the benefit of a more vocational study path that broaden our skills base."
Study in Europe Guide For School-Leavers
In the December 2009 BLOG I included an article on the increasing attraction of taking undergraduate study abroad and the increasing number of European cities whose universities are now offering courses for students with English as their first languge. With the prodigious rise in UK tuition fees it is incumbent on careers staff to open up the availability of these courses to potential under-graduates. I have included a publication here that might help with the research.
Irish Times Study Abroad Guide
Recently published, “The Study Abroad Guide For School Leavers” is the only complete Study in Europe Guide for school leavers to the 400+ undergraduate degree programmes in Continental Europe, taught through English that are now accessible to Irish and UK students. Many of these programmes have no or very low fees.
Though published in Ireland, the guide is written with both UK and Irish students in mind and the content is relevant across both jurisdictions. The 64-page guide contains
• Country profiles of principal destination countries in Europe
• Selected University profiles
• Directory of 400+ degree programmes, taught through English
• Selected course profiles
• Admission processes
• Overview of opportunities in Australia, Canada, NZ, and USA
To order your copy today here Read more Unwrap another world of study opportunities for your students.
A-level results: Top universities secretly list 'banned' subjects
Blacklist said to contain non-traditional A-level subjects mainly offered by comprehensives rather than private schools
Jessica Shepherd, The Guardian's education correspondent , outlined recently in her column the increasing concern about the acceptibility of certain A Level subjects for entry purposes into a number of UK universities
Oxford is one of the elite universities accused of operating a subjects blacklist. More of the country's top universities have been called on to come clean about an unofficial list or lists of "banned" A-level subjects that may have prevented tens of thousands of state school pupils getting on to degree courses.
Teachers suspect the Russell Group of universities – which includes Oxford and Cambridge – of rejecting outright pupils who take A-level subjects that appear on the unpublished lists.
The lists are said to contain subjects such as law, art and design, business studies, drama and theatre studies – non-traditional A-level subjects predominantly offered by comprehensives, rather than private schools.
The London School of Economics is thought to be the only top university to publish its own list of "non-preferred" subjects. Cambridge University did so until last year.
Teachers accused universities of putting comprehensive pupils at a disadvantage by refusing to publish their lists. Some claimed the lists were a filter that enabled the most prestigious universities to accept more private school pupils than state-educated ones.
Already private school pupils dominate entry to top universities and could do so more in future. A-level results published on Thursday showed that selective private schools continue to outperform comprehensives in terms of A and A* grades.
Private school pupils are three times more likely to score the highest grade than comprehensive pupils, achieving 30% of the total number of A* grades when their pupils accounted for just 14% of entries. Comprehensive schools achieve 30% of the A* grades on 43% of entries.
But even the brightest state school pupils, with a string of As and A*s, stand little chance of a place at a top university this year if they have taken one or more of the A-level subjects on the unofficial lists, the teachers said.
These students will join this year's unprecedented scramble for university places. An estimated 180,000 students are predicted to be turned away from every degree course starting this autumn because of record numbers of applications.
John Bangs, former head of education at the National Union of Teachers, said he strongly suspected that there was a single unofficial list of banned subjects.
"The list is built on the assumption that these subjects are easier than others and not academic enough," he said.
"This is just another sign of the Russell Group using a filter to stop people they don't want from getting into their universities. They have no concern about fairness. They should be far more transparent. If they have this list, let them publish it and show us the evidence that these subjects are easier."
Andy Gardner, of the Institute of Career Guidance, said he had confronted Russell Group universities about the alleged list in the past.
"I think there is certainly an element of there being subjects that [the Russell Group] doesn't rate," Gardner, who advises state school pupils on their university choices, said. "Children in state schools are disadvantaged by this."
Mike Griffiths, headteacher of Northampton School for Boys and a council member of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he suspected universities of rejecting students who did drama A-level in particular. One of his pupils has three A*s but no place at university and he believes this may be because he took drama.
"Universities need to be more honest about what criteria they are using [to select pupils]," he said. "I don't have a problem with universities having subjects that they consider to be less helpful, but they need to be upfront about it."
Geoff Lucas, secretary of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, which represents headteachers of 250 independent schools, said universities must "come clean if there were unwritten rules" about so-called banned subjects. State school pupils were more likely to choose a subject in the unofficial list because independent schools mainly offer traditional subjects, Lucas said. "Students have the absolute right to see this list."
Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group, said no Russell Group university barred any A-level subject.
"University websites typically include details on 'essential' and 'preferred' A-levels to help students maximise their chances of gaining entry to competitive degree courses," she said. "Most provide very clear and comprehensive information on required A-level subjects and which ones will not be considered when making admissions decisions. Students would be well advised to take very careful note of such requirements."
This week's A-level results (August 2010) showed that pupils were increasingly shunning so-called "soft" subjects in favour of science, economics and maths.
Qualifications and Destinations of Northern Ireland School Leavers 2008/09
This is the most recent set of published Qualifications and Destinations of NI School Leavers. Results from the 2008/09 School Leavers Survey have been published detailing the qualifications and destinations of school leavers by gender, school type and religion of pupil.
Key Points
• The proportion of school leavers achieving two or more A levels or equivalent was 50.6% in 2008/09, an increase of 6.3 percentage points from 44.3% in 2004/05.
• The proportion of school leavers achieving at least five GCSEs at grades A* - C or equivalent has increased by 7.1 percentage points from 63.0% in 2004/05 to 70.1%
in 2008/09.
• The proportion of pupils leaving school with no GCSEs has decreased by 2.1percentage points from 5.0% in 2004/05 to 2.9% in 2008/09.
• The proportion of school leavers continuing on to Institutions of Higher Education has increased by 4.8 percentage points from 38.1% in 2004/05 to 42.9% in
2008/09. The proportion continuing on to Institutions of Further Education increased by 4.9 percentage points from 27.5% in 2004/05 to 32.4% in 2008/09.
• The proportion of pupils unemployed after leaving school decreased between 2004/05 and 2008/09 from 4.4% to 3.1%.
Qualifications
A Levels
• Girls continue to outperform boys in terms of qualifications achieved. By the time they leave school 58.4% of girls achieved at least two A levels or equivalent compared to 42.8% of boys, and 55.6% of girls achieved three or more A levels or equivalent in 2008/09 compared to 40.7% of boys.
• The proportion of grammar school leavers achieving at least two A levels or equivalent has increased from 81.7% in 2004/05 to 84.4% in 2008/09. 88.5% of grammar school girls left school with two or more A levels or equivalent compared to 80.0% of grammar school boys. The corresponding proportions for secondary schools were 36.1% for girls and 18.1% for boys and 26.9% overall, an increase of 6.8 percentage points from 20.1% in 2004/05.
• The proportion of secondary school leavers achieving at least two A levels or equivalent has increased from 20.1% in 2004/05 to 26.9% in 2008/09.
• When religion of pupil is considered, 54.4% of Catholic school leavers left with two or more A levels compared to 46.2% of Protestant school leavers
• At 55.2% the proportion of pupils not entitled to free school meals who achieved two or more A levels or equivalent was much higher than those pupils entitled to free school meals (25.4%).
GCSEs
• The proportion of girls leaving school with at least five GCSEs or equivalent at grades A* - C remains higher than the proportion of boys; 75.9% of girls leaving school in 2008/09 achieved at least five GCSEs at grades A* - C or equivalent compared to 64.4% of boys.
• The proportion of pupils leaving grammar schools achieving at least five GCSEs at grades A* - C or equivalent has increased from 96.6% in 2004/05 to 97.0% in 2008/09. The corresponding proportions for secondary schools were 41.3% and 51.3%, a 10.0 percentage point increase.
• More boys (413) leave school with no GCSEs or equivalent compared to girls (260), this represents 3.6% of boys and 2.2% of girls.
• When free school meal entitlement is considered 6.1% of those entitled to free school meals leave without any GCSEs compared to 2.3% of school leavers who are not entitled to free school meals.
• 18.8% (102) of Protestant boys entitled to free school meals achieve at least five GCSEs at grades A* - C or equivalent including English and maths compared with 29.4% (332) of Catholic boys entitled to free school meals.
• 63.7% of girls achieve at least five GCSEs at grades A* - C or equivalent including English and maths compared with 53.1% of boys, a difference of 10.6 percentage points. When religion of pupil is considered, 59.5% of Catholic school leavers left with at least five GCSEs at grades A* - C or equivalent including English and maths compared to 57.0% of Protestant school leavers.
Destinations
• In total 42.9% of school leavers entered Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). At 48.8% the proportion of girls continuing on to HEIs is higher than for boys at 37.0%.
• The proportion of boys entering Training is much greater than that for girls at 18.0% and 7.5% respectively.
• When religion of pupil is considered 38.9% of Protestant school leavers attend Institutions of Higher Education compared with 46.4% of Catholic school leavers.
• School leavers not entitled to free school meals are more likely to continue their education with 78.4% entering institutions of Higher or Further Education compared to 58.6% of leavers who were entitled to free school meals.
National Statistics
1.This is a National Statistics publication. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. They undergo regular assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference.
2. For general enquiries about National Statistics, contact the National Statistics Public Enquiry Service by:-
Telephone: 0845 601 3034
minicom: 01633 812399
E-mail: info@statistics.gov.uk
Fax: 01633 652747
Letters: Customer Contact Centre, Room 1.015, Office for National Statistics,
Cardiff Road, Newport, NP10 8XG
3. To find National Statistics on the Internet:read more
School Leavers’ Survey
4. More detail about the collection of school leavers’ statistics can be found at: read more Special analysis of the School
Leavers’ Survey can be produced on request. Comparative data may also be found at:-read more
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/VOL/v000891/index.shtml
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/03/22111037/0
http://www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/stat_school_leaver_survey_2007.pdf
5. Tables referring to highest qualification incorporate equivalences based on the National Qualifications Framework. Further information can be obtained from
the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority website: http://www.qca.org.uk.
6. The numbers relating to qualifications are cumulative totals of the level detailed and those above. For example 70.1% of school leavers achieved at least five
GCSEs A*-C inc. equivalents. This proportion is calculated by adding those with a highest qualification of 3+ A Levels, 2 A Levels, 1 A Level & 5 GCSEs
A*-C and dividing by the total number of school leavers.
7. Destinations are reported by the school leavers and recorded by the school.
Further Information
8. Requests for further information should be addressed to:-
Mr John Toogood
Statistics and Research Branch
Department of Education
Rathgael House
Balloo Road
Rathgill
Bangor
BT19 7PR
Telephone (028) 9127 9379
Fax (028) 9127 9594
E-mail john.toogood@deni.gov.uk
DE Statistical Press Releases can be accessed at the DE Internet site:- http://www.deni.gov.uk under the Statistics and Research section
9. Media enquiries to the Department of Education Press Office Tel: 02891279207. Out of office hours contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699715440 and your call will be returned.
GRADUATE STORIES
Students looking to secure their first graduate job need more than just labour market information; they also need to understand how the graduate labour market operates.
In order to illustrate the complexity of the graduate labour market HECSU invited 100 graduate employees to describe how they ended up in their current roles.
We hope that reading these graduate career stories will give students a better understanding of the complex reality of the graduate labour market, as well as the confidence to actively manage their own labour market experience. You can download these from:Read more
The stories/profiles should be used creatively by the CEIAG staff in bringing out key information and trends!
UNI GUIDE WARNING OVER 'SOFT' A-Levels
A group of top universities published guidance today revealing a preference for students who take traditional A-levels.
The Russell Group, including Queens, Belfast, lists the so-called 'facilitaing' subjects for gaining a place as maths, English, geography, history, biology, chemistry, physics and classical or modern languages in their guide 'Informed Choices'.
Sudents selecting subjects post -16 are warned about closing potential degree courses for themselves in avoiding the challenge presented by the subjects listed above! They are advised to take no more that one of the so called 'softer' options (they list media studies, art, business studies) if they wish to consider the more competitive universities/courses.Education Guardian asked HE institutions for advice on whichA-level subjects they view favourably and which ones they rule out. 27 unis responded and you can find their reponses here Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment