University funding/finances

Senate report confirms package including funding cuts, fee rises will need crossbench support to pass

Paper highlights possible negative impact of performance-related funding and for-profit universities on widening participation  

Australian legislation proposes to lower the country’s generous loan repayment threshold – but some argue that it should rise even higher, says Andrew Norton

Post-Brexit university funding issues are about more than the big pots of research cash, writes Gurpreet Jagpal

Expanding degree apprenticeships will strengthen universities’ important role in improving their local communities, says Dawn Morley

Before pouring more public or private money into universities, politicians must ensure that all students are properly prepared, says Warren Bebbington

Claims that outsourcing in higher education improves efficiency are not proven, says analysis

Providing support for learners on low-cost ‘flat-pack degrees’ is key to expanding international higher education in Australia and worldwide, says Merlin Crossley

Ellie Bothwell goes through the archives from 45 to five years ago and discovers some recurring themes

Forty per cent of state-funded student places to be axed also

Simon Birmingham claims that universities can achieve ‘economies of scale’ to deal with funding cuts 

‘Drastic action’ required to fix multibillion-pound shortfall in Universities Superannuation Scheme, expert warns

Sally Hunt says new London Economics analysis of loan repayments has exposed the lie that student funding is progressive

London Economics shows how less well-off graduates will repay more than higher-earning peers

But polling also finds balance of public opinion is against Labour policy and tuition fees rated low among voting priorities

Knee-jerk, uncosted and damaging calls to abolish fees must be resisted, says Bill Rammell

Flexible degrees and a clearer public contribution to their cost would command widespread support, says Iain Martin 

University leaders dismayed by factual holes in the revived debate over tuition fees should respond with some broad brush strokes of their own, says Andy Westwood

Current fees system ‘isn’t perfect’, but it does a decent job of balancing the interests of universities, students and taxpayers, says Tim Bradshaw

Labour peer calls for funding council intervention on Glynis Breakwell’s salary

Half of university leaders surveyed say £9,000 system is unsustainable, showing widespread desire for major reform

The $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a huge opportunity to build academic capacity in Pakistan, say Abdur Rehman Cheema and Muhammad Haris

Higher education policy could easily be drawn into the deal-making and compromises that are routine in hung parliaments, says Nick Pearce 

University cites Brexit as factor causing financial uncertainty – but also as recruitment ‘opportunity’

Financial uncertainty had forced institutions to cut jobs and courses

Shadow HE minister Gordon Marsden believes that the current approach to tuition fees could end up punishing not only students, but whole communities

Poorer teenagers in England will shun university because they ‘cannot access Bank of Mum and Dad’, Labour leader warns

Arizona State University’s Michael Crow was the highest-earning leader in 2015-16

Threshold freeze bites while poorest graduate ‘with largest debts’ of £57,000 on average, researchers warn

Senior minister said that there may need to be a ‘national debate’ about student debt

Jo Johnson takes aim at Southampton’s leader in outspoken attack on ‘sharp increase’ in salaries

Lecturers and vice-chancellors will now be eligible for four-year visas and permanent residency

‘Shocking’ shift away from fundamental projects harms country's scientific reputation, says author of report

Low salaries, excessive bureaucracy and poorly defined research policies add to region’s woes

UK universities’ complacency in the good times has left them ill-equipped to respond to falling postgraduate master’s enrolment, says Michelle Morgan

The sweatshop conditions in which sessional academics work in Australia mirror the treatment of schoolteachers in Victorian times, say Hannah Forsyth and Jedidiah Evans 

Exercise that could take money away from universities likely to be shelved or scaled back

Vice-chancellor explains traditional offices and teaching styles will disappear at £330 million Waterside project

As student loan debt in the UK passes £100 billion, Sir Keith Burnett says it’s time we faced up to the real cost of tuition fees and debt

Forty-one per cent of respondents to ACE survey describe political climate as ‘hostile’ to higher education

Figures from latest Times Higher Education/Grant Thornton survey highlight ‘arbitrary nature’ of awards, says UCU

Lots of money is spent on medical education in England – but very little of it goes towards teaching, says Philip Chan 

In our annual survey of vice-chancellors’ pay, which reveals double-digit hikes for some and more modest rises for others, Simon Baker examines how remuneration committees make their decisions amid calls for greater transparency over the ‘arbitrary’ nature of salary increases

Popularity of plans to scrap tuition fees in England sparks interest Down Under

Proportion of universities saying making money is a key motivation doubles in five years

UK’s distance learning institution looking to save equivalent of nearly a quarter of its budget

Party figures warn vice-chancellors not to ignore public anger over tuition fees

Concerns over political failure to agree strategy and predictions of mergers raised in major survey

The maths just does not add up when you look at the impact of cuts on tuition fee prices, says Andrew Gillen

Worcester vice-chancellor forecasts 'significant financial difficulty' for dozens of universities because of dip in student numbers

Molly Corbett Broad warns that sectors' pre-eminent position in global higher education may be at risk

Free movement and ECJ jurisdiction seen as potential stumbling blocks at Russell Group's meeting with MEPs

Fears over youth unemployment and excessive university expansion could be behind weak support as some countries mull shift

While participation has continued to grow under £9,000 fee regime, researchers argue efforts to widen access would be helped by abolition of fees

Purdue University’s controversial acquisition of Kaplan University reflects the failure of for-profit education. But, under Trump, it may have an unwelcome resurgence, warns Felipe Fernández-Armesto

The Deutschlandstipendium, which sponsors students with a mixture of public and private funding, has disappointed some critics

Minister puts blame on failure to budget for uncapping student numbers, as opposition mounts

Removing the cap on subsidised sub-bachelor’s places in public universities will pull the rug out from under technical and further education providers offering similar qualifications, says Gavin Moodie

University leaders highlight teaching funding proposal’s similarity to England’s TEF and fear ‘perverse incentives’