UCU backs NUS report that shows higher education 'creaking under the pressure of market forces'

'Broke and Broken: A Critique of the Higher Education Funding System', warns that the scenario will only get worse if the cap on top-up fees is raised or lifted.
 
The report argues that:

• a narrow focus on the fees 'cap' during the forthcoming review will not address the current failures in the system
• the system as designed – based on the principle that the market better delivers what students pay for – is faulty and has a range of unintended and negative consequences
• inside the market system, assumptions about the ability of educational 'consumers' to navigate choices effectively are misplaced and unsupported.
• the system ensures that the richest institutions financially benefit most from poor performance in widening participation – and vice versa.
• significant amounts of institutional bursary help arising out of the new system are being allocated on criteria that are not related to financial need.
• the 'credit crunch' and associated effects on food and fuel prices risk engulfing the additional help provided by the government in grants
• rather than act as an engine of social mobility, the current system's 'diversity' acts to reinforce existing social inequality in both opportunity and outcome
• the system fails to ensure that those who enjoy the greatest financial benefit from higher education will contribute more to its costs.

Welcoming the report, UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'The NUS paper provides a cogent critique of the current system of student finance and offers a stark warning to those vice-chancellors and politicians agitating for a rise in fee levels. Despite record sums of money being spent on widening participation, it is worrying that there has been little change in the proportion of students from the poorest backgrounds entering higher education. The current policy of sentencing students to record levels of debt is in desperate need of a rethink, something next year's fees review must address.'

NUS President Wes Streeting said: 'More prestigious universities in the Russell Group are able to offer poorer students an average annual bursary of £1,791, but less prestigious universities in the Million+ group are only able to offer £680. There is clearly a market of prestige at work, with financial support being based not on how much you need it but on where you study. Things will only get worse if the cap on top-up fees is raised.'

• Broke and Broken: A Critique of the Higher Education Funding System, NUS 2008 (.pdf)
  
  Please contact the NUS press office for a hard copy of the report:
  Jonathan.Carroll@nus.org.uk
  tel: 020 7380 6604