What I Did On My Summer Holidays

Inevitably, each year, I get asked by someone what I did with my huge summer holiday.  Now, I have friends who work in primary and secondary schools and even they don't have the whole 6 weeks sat in their back garden drinking Pimms.  Instead they try and convince you that they work jolly hard for at least some of those days, working out lesson plans for the coming year.

When you ask the holiday question of University Administrators, there is usually a pained smile that comes across their faces.  The degree of pain depends on whether they work centrally, with the day to day of current students or admissions.  The first bunch will tell you that there are no slack periods left anymore; the second will tell you they spent time finishing off records for the outgoing bunch, grabbed a week or two and then returned to prepare for the new lot; the third lot will reach for a nearby sharp instrument, whilst muttering something about A-levels and UCAS.

All of which brings me to the Government's plans to cut the budgets of virtually all departments and its insistance that some of this will be achieved by trimming the fat, greater efficiency, etc.  The public sector may not operate fully under the commercial pressure of the private sector, but the management speak and organisational practices of that sector are already well know to it.  Most Universities will have undergone some restructuring, reorganisation or attempts to get rid of the dead wood over the last few years.  We don't operate in a Never Never Land, where everyone gets 6 weeks to catch up on their novel reading, watercolours or tan.*  We work through such periods to provide value for the tax payers and fee payers' money and, as with other sectors, the cuts can only come at the expense of services.

*Nor do Academics, before you get all cynical on me.  They spend the 6 weeks briefly recuperating, before delving into that world class research.  From home.  There can be no other explanation for the half empty carpark.

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.