Degree Courses under threat

9.06.00pm GMT Wed 17th Mar 2010

Thanks to Labour's obsession with targets, and the mess they have made of public finances, good degree courses may be closed so that Universities are not fined. Sounds crazy, but this is what could happen according to Nigel Quinton, prospective Lib Dem MP for Hitchin & Harpenden.

The situation is this: there are 100,000 more University applicants this year than last, yet the number of places is likely to be lower, thanks to the government's massive cuts in funding. On top of this, the government gives targets to Universities on how many students they can recruit. Go under or over, and the University gets fined. Millions of pounds of fines.

And because some Universities recruited too many students last year, they must LOWER the number of places available this year. Even though there are more applicants. Tens of thousands of applicants will find themselves with nowhere to go, maybe even 150,000.

The Universities had already made their offers, before the cuts were announced. So what can the Universities do?

The rules mean that if a course runs, students who get the grades set at A level have to be accepted. If the course closes, however, they DO NOT have to be accepted. Universities could keep to their targets by cutting viable, popular courses, and casting all their applicants for those courses adrift. Even students with A's across the board could find themselves with no place to go.

Nigel Quinton commented "Instead of investing in the future of our country by investing in young people, New Labour have abandoned them, just as the Thatcher government abandoned a generation in the early 80's. This is yet further evidence of Labour's inability to deliver what they promise. The Conservatives are not proposing anything different, and only the Lib Dems have firm policies to invest in our young people and ensure we have a well educated workforce able to compete with the rest of the world."