Student protests: the real story

The London Review of Books has published several eye-witness accounts of police violence written by academics and students from Cambridge. The incidents recorded took place during the protests against tuition fee rises and cuts in the Higher Education budget. 

Collini: the misleading metaphor of ‘the market’

In an article in the Evening Standard yesterday, Stefan Collini focuses on the crux of the problem with the government’s proposals — that ‘education cannot function as a true market because the “consumers” are not in a position to know in advance what they are supposed to want.’

Can universities exceed the £9000 fee cap?

Balliol College, Oxford, is planning to introduce a £500 a year levy  to all new students next academic year. Is this a loophole that will allow universities to exceed the new £9000 p.a. fee cap without opting out of the public system entirely?

LSE Public Debate – “Big Society and Social Policy in Britain”: A Panel Discussion

Department of Social Policy / STICERD Public Debate – “Big Society and Social Policy in Britain”: A Panel Discussion

Date: 27th January 2011
Time: 6:30 – 8pm
Venue: Old Theatre
Speakers: Professor David Lewis, Karl Wilding, Frances Crook, Rory Stewart.
Chair: Professor Julian Le Grand, LSE
This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis.For further information regarding the event please view www.lse.ac.uk/events|, or click here| (PDF) to view the full details.
Should you have any queries regarding the event please email Maria Schlegel: m.s.schlegel@lse.ac.uk

Stanley Fish: Browne does not recognise the value of learning

Writing in the New York Times the literary scholar Stanley Fish has criticised the underlying assumptions of the Browne report and its ‘relentless monetization of everything in sight.’

Willetts’ ‘farcical’ claims

Professor Nicola Miller, chair of the Humanities and Social Science Matter campaign, argues in a letter in the Guardian today that it is ‘farcical’ of David Willetts to claim that cutting all direct government support for the humanities and social science will improve the student experience. The full text of the letter is below the fold:

Lords reject appeal to discuss ‘game changing’ privitisation of universities

The House of Lords this evening rejected an amendment that called for more time to discuss the implications of the removal of the teaching grant and supported the government’s resolution to raise the fee cap to £9000. The main points made by the opponents of the government’s plans were (1) that they amounted to the abdication of the principle that universities are a public good as well as a private benefit; (2) that they were socially divisive; and (3) that the scheme will reduce the debt only in accounting terms and that the real debt will simply be passed onto the younger generation.

Here are some extracts from the debate:

University funding reforms “may not save public money”

The Liberal Democrat Higher Education spokesperson in the Lords, Lady Sharp, has told the Guardian she is not certain to vote for the government in the vote in the Lords today. She is quoted as saying that the government’s proposals may not save any public money, which “makes me question whether the whole exercise is worthwhile”.

LSE warns Vince Cable of damage from axing teaching grant

Howard Davies, Director of the London School of Economics (LSE) and one of the UK’s best known financial service experts has released correspondence from the LSE to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) rejecting the Browne Review’s policy conclusions which the coalition government has adopted.

The government’s case is ‘weak’

William Cullerne Browne has published an open letter to the House of Lords today in which he argues that the principle elements of the government’s case are weakly formulated.