Posts Tagged ‘Peter Mandeslon’

The government has announced that former BP Chief Executive Lord Browne of Madingley will lead the panel set to review student tuition fees.

The Chair of British Youth Council’s (BYC) Board of Trustees, Rajay Naik, will join the panel as a student voice.

The group will conduct a review into student tuition fees and higher education funding. According to a government website, they have been tasked with “making recommendations to Government on the future of fees policy and financial support for full and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate students.”

Lord Mandelson, Business Secretary, said that the review will consider, “all who would be affected by any changes, including current and potential students.”

Yesterday the National Union of Students (NUS) warned Government against a “cosy stitch-up” on fees, citing research carried out by YouGov on more than 2000 adults in Britain suggesting that 52% think that the forthcoming review should consider abolishing top-up fees.

This research also showed that 71% of the general public thought that there should be a student representative on the review panel.

Commenting on the appointment of Naik, Wes Streeting, NUS President, said: “NUS is pleased that the Government has listened to our calls for a student voice to be included on this panel. It is vitally important that this member is not sidetracked by business and university interests.”

Naik will be joined on the panel by; Peter Sands, Chief Executive of Standard Chartered PLC; Julia King, former Principal of Engineering at Imperial College and now Vice-Chancellor of Aston University; Professor David Eastwood, Former Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England and now Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham; Diane Coyle, BBC Trustee and visiting professor at the University of Manchester; Sir Michael Barber, head of McKinsey’s Global Education Practice.

The review is expected to take into account the goal of widening participation, affordability and the desirability of a simplification of the student support system.

Mandelson added: “Variable tuition fees provide institutions with a secure income stream worth £1.3bn, helping to sustain the long-term financial health and viability of the sector.  Since they were introduced student numbers have continued to rise, along with the numbers coming from lower-income backgrounds.”

However, NUS were less convinced, saying that there is a “real danger” that the review could leave some students “priced out of more prestigious universities”.

“This would be a disaster for UK higher education and must not be allowed to happen,” Streeting added.

The findings of the review will not be published until after the next general election.

Sally Hunt, UCU General Secretary, warned that the timing of the review mustn’t allow MP’s to avoid discussing issues around student funding.

“Despite the review’s timetable, all the parties must clearly state their fee policies to ensure that students and their parents can make an informed choice at the ballot box.

“Failure to do so will deny the general public a voice on the debate on the future of university funding. The review needs to be allowed to be properly conducted with the relevant voices, particular those of academics and students, heard on the core group.”

Stephen Williams, Liberal Democrat university spokesman, said: “This review is nothing but a conspiracy between Labour and the Tories designed to keep plans to hike up tuition fees off the agenda until after the general election.”

The “top up fees generation”, many of whom are voting for the first time in the upcoming election, are “crucial” to any party wishing to retain seats in Parliament, according to the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU).

A staggering 85% of 18-24 oppose an increase in student tuition fees, with just 5% in favour according to a poll conducted by YouGov for the UCU.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “Today’s poll shows that the country, and in particular the top-up fees generation, will not stomach further increases in the cost of going to university.”

Nizam Uddin, University of London Union President, said: “It’s about time our politicians realised how serious student issues are and how integral students will be in the next election.”

Top up fees currently cost students £3,225 per year, with many covering the cost by taking out a loan, resulting in large debts when they graduate.

Provisional figures released by the student loans company show that in 2008/09 663,900 English domiciled students applying under the 2006/07 entry regulations had applied for a tuition fee loan at an average rate of £2,950 per student. This figure, indicative of the ‘top up fees generation’, represents just over 1.7% of the UK electorate, with the figure due to rise with the influx of students taking out loans for their first year of study in 2009/10.

In addition, the UCU has identified 20 key constituencies where the ‘top-up fees generation’ equate to a “substantial proportion” of the population – between 21% and 33%. Of those 20 constituencies, half are currently held by a Labour MP and five of them have a majority of less than 6,000. Only Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) enjoys a majority of over 10,000.

Over 60% of people who said they would vote Labour, Lib Dem or Conservative in the next general election said they either, “disagree, or disagree strongly, that universities should be allowed to increase tuition fees.”

Responding to UCU’s poll and speaking ahead of Labour Party conference, Labour MP for Dagenham, John Cruddas, said: “Access to education is a central driver of equality and should be a natural Labour issue, not least because it is such an important priority for the younger voters that Labour must persuade if we are to win another term.  On this issue we can and should be forcing the Tories to show their hand as the party of privilege by being bold.”

The Liberal Democrat party recently revoked its promise to abolish tuition fees and a report from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) suggested that an increase in tuition fees is “inevitable”. 

Among University of London College Heads, support for increased to tuition fees is mixed. Rick Trainor, Principal of King’s College London, is one of three academics on the CBI’s ‘Taskforce’ – the same group that found increased fees to be inescapable.

Malcolm Grant, UCL Provost, told the Guardian of his support for a graduate tax: “Things have to move more quickly. The whole atmosphere has changed. We have moved a long way from the ideological divide of 2004 but, at the same time, people are increasingly nervous about debt because of the recession. We have to make sure the ways in which fees are structured is changed.”

Uddin added: “Tomorrow’s electorate will not stand idly by at today’s poor consideration for student needs. We will be embarking on a mass voter registration drive across London universities this year, encouraging students to make politicians listen using the ballot box.”

Following Mandelson’s talk at the Labour Conferenc in brightion today, UCU General Secretary, Sally Hunt said: 

“Despite his warm words, Lord Mandelson hinted that students needed to contribute to the cost of their education. What voters have a right to know is how much? It is not acceptable for any of the political parties to fudge such a crucial issue, especially now they know the general public is so opposed to any increases in the cost of university education.”

“What we really need to see is some action. We will not create a better or fairer education system, where all who have talent can genuinely benefit, if we do not drastically alter the current system.”

As a child, I vividly remember watching an enthusiastic Neil Buchanan on ‘Art Attack’. Every week I would follow his artistry with wide eyes, as he transformed pasta shapes and PVA to high art. And whilst it would be wrong to pretend that all of his work had the power of some of his lolly stick creations, it is still the case that I was deeply affected by the program. It is my deep nostalgia for the show that lets me recognise another fan when I see one, and makes me sure that Peter Mandelson must share my passion for ITV’s longest running program.

It must have been the theme tune that caught the First Secretary of State’s attention – “This is an art attack, this is an art attack, this is…Art Attack!” Its repetition reminiscent of New Labour’s ‘education, education, education’, Mandelson seems to have held the mantra close to heart – as part of his captaincy of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the arts have been militantly dismissed in favour of more commercial subjects.

Of course, Mandelson pays lip service to the idea of holistic learning. In a speech at Birkbeck College, he noted, “I do not believe that the function of a university is limited to – or even primarily about- economic outcomes…the case for a higher education system that invests in everything from classics to quantum physics is a compelling one.”

But although he may well find the idea of a liberal education compelling, his actions make it clear he finds them less than convincing. A review of postgraduate education he has launched is being run by the director general of Science and Research, Adrian Smith, which will consult both universities and industry, in a move that will commercialise our postgraduate sector further.

More controversially, the decision by the BIS earlier this year to fund a further 10,000 undergraduate places in Stem (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects over their original cap made it clear that business and enterprise are the cornerstones of Mandelson’s convictions – not autonomous education.

This bias against the social sciences and the arts is all the more baffling considering Mandelson’s commentary that the creative industries are a sector of “comparative potential advantage” for the UK in the coming decade. The UK currently has the largest creative sector in the EU, and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, has estimated that “between 2009 and 2013 the UK creative industries – which is responsible for films, music, fashion, TV and video games production – will grow on average at 4% – more than double the rate of the rest of the economy. By 2013, the sector is expected to employ 1.3 million people, likely to be more than the financial sector.”

But we can’t blame the Minister-of-Most-Things for everything. New Labour governments as a whole have been doggedly focused on enterprise and commerce above all else. With architectural projects such as the extensions of the Tate Modern and the British Museum in jeopardy, and the Olympic project bleeding money from arts initiatives around the country, the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee agreed this month that “new places in higher education should meet the strategic needs of the country for STEM graduates.” It seems apparent that although the arts and social sciences are a good thing in principle, in reality, they just aren’t seen as worth holding onto. Top all this off with the symbolic peerage of Sir Alan Sugar as enterprise tsar, and before the glue even has had time to dry, ‘here’s one I made earlier’ – an innovation model unwilling to support the innovation of the creative industries.

One of my best memories of ‘Art Attack’ was of ‘The Head’, an animated stone bust who follows through Neil’s steps, but inevitably gets things hilariously wrong. Perhaps Mandelson saw a resemblance here as well; saw part of himself in this monolithic figure, without the corporeality to do anything of substance. Just as The Head couldn’t really make a Fairy liquid bottle spaceship to save his life, Mandelson admits, “The man in Whitehall – and increasingly the woman – does not know best how to run a university.” We can only hope that he too, like The Head, gets cut in the final few series of this government.