Is Privatization the Future?

On 26 July, BPP, a private college providing mainly legal and business courses, was given University College status. (BPP's press release)  This makes it only the second private University in the UK and the first since 1976. Much was made in the press about the Unions response to this news (particularly concerns overs standards) and the goivernment's stance on private sector involvement in HE  - it wants more according to David Willetts.  BPP and Buckingham (that 1976 university - Cabinet Minister for Education at the time? One Margaret Hilda Thatcher) won't be Government funded and therefore not answerable to HEFCE.

In a lot of ways, BPP is an answer to the Government's woes over HE.  Any increase in UK student numbers means the Treasury having to reach into their pockets to give the students a loan for fees.  Any increase in fees, although meaning they can plausibly be justified in cutting central funding, means having to reach deeper.  Creating a private university means they don't have to pay out a bean.  Of all the suggestions the Browne Report may contain, private universities would be one of the cheapest to implement.

The Unions' worries seem to be two-fold: that unlike Buckingham, which is a non profit making business, BPP will look to profit margins and shareholders ahead of all else and that without HEFCE enforcing audits and collecting data, standards will be allowed to slip, bringing the reputation of  UK HE intitutions into disrepute. (UCU article on BPP)

The Union concerns have some merit, but if BPP is the thin edge of the wedge, Buckingham shows the wedge to be a bloody long one.  BBP offers mainly professional qualifications, for which people expect to pay a fair fee in return for the directly applicable letters after their name and increased salary it means.  Branching into degrees has so far been limited professional areas, where the degree has a similar effect.  Whether this heralds the arrival of new private universities depends on the level of fees the market will take and the amount the universities will need to charge to keep afloat.

We might be entering into a new era if the fee cap is hiked up or removed entirely.  If the proportion of money recieved directly from the Treasury shrinks to negligable, how soon before someone works out it's cheaper to charge higher fees and go private and not have to complete all those pesky returns to HEFCE or risk fines on recruitment?  Those at Cranfield may be experiencing a squeeky bum moment as it might well be considering its potential standing in a private market, given its excellent reputation.

What does all this mean for the lowly administrator?  Well, I'm sure we'd all like to throw a party at never having to see the Auditors again, but surely if that wedge starts to widen, some form of independent accreditation body can't be too far away to keep critics at bay?  Cue a few years of establishment of rules, measures, revisions and chaos in terms of what actual data is needed.

But will it all happen?  We await Browne, obviously, to see what will happen with fees, but we also wait to see what the banks might offer in terms of student loans.  The one consequence of going private is that the Student Loans Company is out of the equation, and how much are banks going to be willing to loan, and indeed, charge for that BSc in Aquatic Exploration with Organic Crafts?

When is bringing more money into the UK economy a Bad Thing? When immigration and students are involved.

So, the number of students from non-EU countries coming into the UK has risen 33% in a year. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10834526 Rather than view this as a splendid example of the education sector bucking the international trend of doom and gloom or as a statement on the strength of UKHE as a brand, the government instead says it's "undertaking a thorough evaluation of the student system over the coming weeks and months and ... will introduce new measures to minimise abuse and tighten the system further."

Of course the figures need to be understood against the background of the chaos and upset that the introduction of UKBA's Tier 4 points based immigration system brought in much of the first of the two years being compared here. Those of us who kept an eye on JISCmail messages could see the way that the scheme was being implemented subjectively according to country, with different branches interpretting the rules in different ways.

It was almost as if the Labour politicians that came up with the idea of restricting student immigration to those with actual places, having dreamt up the concept, then buggered off, leaving it to Civil Servants to work out the details. Oh, and could they do it before a potential next General Election came around? It bore all the marks of a rush job.

So, given a year, HE administrators finally having gotten their heads around which hoops students need to jump through (and tills to pass by, lets not forget each of these new students is paying HMG for the privilige of *applying* to study here), we've managed to soften the harsh edges of a government scheme and make it more friendly to attract them and their wallets, I mean, their brains and skills as students adding to the rich tapestry of knowledge. And our reward? A review to tighten things further.

It remains to be seen how the LibDems will respond, given the mosre relaxed attitude they were putting forward before May.