UCU accuses universities of glossing over key problems in UK higher education

Responding to a report from Universities UK (UUK), Patterns of higher education institutions in the UK, UCU said the report glossed over the serious issues of funding for universities and the lack of progression in the number of students entering UK institutions from the poorest backgrounds.
 
The UUK report states that 'in terms of the percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) spent on higher education, the UK is close to the European average.' However, the report does not give a European average and uses figures from 2005. The most recent figures available come from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and reveal that the UK spends the equivalent of £2.7bn less on higher education than the OECD average.
 
The report further states that 'the proportion of students from social classes 4, 5, 6 and 7 entering higher education continues to grow.' However, evidence from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) performance indicators for 2007-8 indicates that for young full-time undergraduate entrants to higher education, the proportion from socio-economic groups 4, 5, 6, and 7 actually dropped in 2007-8, from 30.3% in 2006-7 to 30.1% in 2007-8.

'No country that sees itself as a global leader in higher education can be in the bottom half of any table listing how much money is being spent'
Sally Hunt
UCU general secretary

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'There is much to celebrate about higher education in the UK, particularly the work done by staff as overall student numbers continue to increase. However, it is not good enough to gloss over the areas where much still has to be done if we are to have any chance of maintaining our proud global reputation.
 
'No country that sees itself as a global leader in higher education can be in the bottom half of any table that lists how much money is being spent on higher education. Furthermore, there may have been incredible sums of money spent on the government's laudable aim to widen access to university, but unless we remove the prohibitive financial barriers that put so many potential students off university we will not see any real difference in the social makeup of our institutions.'
 
Total expenditure on higher education institutions as % of GDP 1998-2006

Source: OECD, Education at a Glance (series), table B2.4
(Data for earlier years was not in a directly comparable series).