Report from the Guardian's Future of Higher Education summit
Cribsheet's brain is buzzing with ideas from the Guardian Future of Higher Education summit in London yesterday.
While there was general recognition that universities will be driven to charge the full £9,000 fee as - not least, as Aaron Porter put it, as "a signal of quality" - the most important task facing universities, everyone felt, is to persuade disadvantaged students that a university education will be of benefit in the long term.
Steve Smith pointed out that students don't have to pay up front, and 70% probably won't end up paying off their fees in full anyway.
David Willetts said it was a myth that going to university didn't pay - graduates earn on average £31,000 he said, while those with a masters earn £39,000 and a doctorate pushes earnings up to £46,000.
Martin Harris of Offa said so far fees have not proved to be a deterrent. The biggest thing stopping poorer students getting to university is their level of attainment at school. He argued that universities need to play a role in helping school students make the right choices of subjects early on in their school lives, and work with underachieving students.
Simon Hughes said he always thought about new initiatives in terms of "how will this work for people on estates off the Old Kent Road". He hadn't supported the hike in fees, but took up the "poisoned chalice" of making sure people weren't put off going to university.
@mikebakeredhack (who chaired the event) tweeted:
"Simon Hughes clearly moving towards more mentors and access advocates to work in schools for his report to PM on uni access."
Actually I always think of Simon Hughes as the Good (but ineffectual) Fairy that turns up at Sleeping Beauty's cradle when she's born. You know the one that comes in just after the Bad Fairy has said she'll die on her 16th birthday? Then the good but sadly less powerful fairy comes up with an amendment that says she won't actually die, she'll just be unconsciousness for 100 years.
The Guardian's new Higher Education Network blogged throughout the day and there'll be a full report on the summit in next week's Education Guardian, our Tuesday supplement - do look out for it.
Education news in the Guardian
• While the summit was underway, over in another part of the forest, Hefce was dropping its own bombshell on higher education. It announced funding cuts to all but five universities in England, with newer universities worst affected. Universities that can offset teaching losses with their research income emerge most unscathed, as the teaching grant is reduced by 8.2%, compared with 2.8% shaved from the research budget. Our Guardian Datablog table shows which universities have been worst hit.
• Durham University is the latest to announce that it intends to charge the highest available tuition fee of £9,000, joining Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London and Exeter. Promising a generous package of financial support, Professor Chris Higgins, Durham University's vice-chancellor, said:
"We are passionate not just about excellence – but excellence with a smile."
• The influential home affairs select committee warned the government that its proposals to curb the number of overseas students coming to Britain could "cripple" the thriving education sector and are based on flawed evidence.
• More than one in six children in England didn't get into the secondary school of their choice this year, government figures show
• More than a quarter of all medicine and dentistry students come from a tiny proportion of the country's fee-paying schools, an analysis of data by the Independent Schools Council reveals.
Education news from around the web
Story of the day has to be the BBC's revelation that graduates could end up paying back double their original student loans. Leading accountancy firms calculated that a student borrowing £39,000 for a three-year course could pay back up to £83,000 in total, in cash terms.
@SchoolDuggery tweets:
"Is the government still claiming tuition fees won't stop poor students applying?"
• Lecturers at Scottish universities are out on strike in the ongoing row over changes to pension schemes, reports the Independent. UCU members at Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Strathclyde and St Andrews universities are taking involved. Union gen sec Sally Hunt says:
"Today the action affects 132,000 students across Scotland and eight universities and this will be repeated next week and nationally if we can't get the employers to sit down and talk. There will be no teaching, no lectures."
• Will he, won't he? rumours flew last week that outgoing NUS president, Aaron Porter, would try to become the Labour Party candidate for Leicester South. His name even made it onto the wikipedia page for the byelection. But Porter himself has now refuted the claims in a tweet:
And today his name did not appear on the provisional shortlist.
Caricature masterclass by a Guardian cartoonist
Sharpen your pencils - the Prince's Drawing School is running a weekend masterclass for adults, led by Nicola Jennings, on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 March from 10am to 4pm.
The weekend will begin with a brief history of caricature, followed by a look at the proportions of the face. Students will learn to observe and analyse facial expressions and movements, highlighting appropriate characteristics to describe personality. Here's the booking form.
Insight into journalism seminar for teachers
A unique opportunity for teachers to spend a day at the Guardian, find out how a national news media organisation works and get ideas and resources that can be used in the classroom.
Multimedia 31 March Writing for a news website, web editing, blogging, the use of social media, video production; podcasting.
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