Northern Ireland uni cuts still to come. Are we prepared?

Cuts in university funding for England are at odds with what’s happening in Scotland with its modest £21 million hike for 2010-11 and Northern Ireland 2009-10, but for how long?  The local settlement for 2009 –10 is an increase but for the life of me I can’t find up to date figures for 2010 –11 other than in the three year plan which we have to think of now as fantasy. Reports that capital cuts threaten a UU move from Jordanstown to the Cathedral quarter seem all too credible and maybe entirely sensible.  Does anybody know what the terms are for a review of “Higher Strategy?”. I’ve yet to come across a discussion about this. The Bel Tel, as it does so often, maddingly, simply lifts an English story as a page filler without the slightest attempt to cover the local angle.  If you can contribute a quick insight amid last minute Christmas Eve dashing about, it would add a touch of spice to the Xmas sugar. Or treat it a post-prandial puzzle maybe? The prospect of cuts coming on top of bids to increase student fees once again focuses sharply on the very idea of the university. To broaden the mind or sharpen the skills, mainly intellectual or vocational? . The UK buried the distinction by upgrading the polys. Then New Labour dashed for expansion to a target 50 % of all young adults. So far 38% has been achieved . It was just 3% in my day. Has the time to call a halt to expansion to protect quality or does that amount to gross class discrimination?  Beyond the understandable cries from the vested interests , quite a lot of press comment favours a standstill and greater differentiation in degree courses according to subject.

Nick Timmins in the FT spells out the extent of cuts for England and the capital/ revenue split - a figure higher than in most reports. 

In all, higher education’s funding will be £518m lower next year, a reduction of almost 7 per cent on this year’s £7.8bn expenditure. This year’s spending has been artificially boosted by £250m of capital expenditure that was brought forward to combat the recession. But capital expenditure will fall from this year’s £938m to £404m.

Former Tory ( but independent-minded)  education minister George Walden in the Telegraph hankers for a return to the polytechnic.

Though the Tories claim to oppose it, it is misplaced egalitarianism that is behind Labour’s vast expansion of student numbers, which Lord Mandelson admits is “putting unmanageable pressures on our student support budget”.

Brian Walker @ 10:38 AM