At the HEFCE seminar consultation event, HEFCE were quite particular about not calling them "second degrees" because of the enormous confusion that this could lead to. Yet DIUS jumps in with both feet.
I'm intrigued by the £100k support for a 2nd degree compared to the £55k for a 16yr old school leaver. Where does £100k come from? Is it the additional taxpayer support for 2 years of post compulsory, then 6 years of 2 undergraduate degrees? Or has the unit resource just been increased without anyone noticing?
Dave
Dr Dave Radcliffe
Senior Planning Officer
Planning Office, University of Birmingham
-----Original Message-----
From: Academic, financial or space planning in UK universities [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anne Robson
Sent: 27 November 2007 18:23
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: ELQs - the Government's advice to students
If you haven't already seen DIUS's advice to prospective students on 'second degrees' (aka ELQs), you can see it here:
http://www.dius.gov.uk/publications/hefunding.html
There are some skilfully-crafted phrases. Try these:
'From September 2008 ... taxpayer support ... will start to be reduced.
The pace of change will be fairly slow in 2008/09 with only about £25 million being redistributed which is 0.2% of the total money we give...'
'We recognise that these changes may mean that institutions increase their tuition fees for Second Degrees, although they are not obliged to do so.'
'The majority of students planning to [enrol] next year are still likely to be able to find places although they will need to contact the institution at which they are hoping to study'
'At the moment, across the whole of their education, the taxpayer contributes about £100,000 on average to support students who get a second degree, compared with about £55,000 for someone who leaves school at sixteen ... it [is] hard to justify this both to taxpayers and to those who haven't yet benefited from Higher Education and got a first degree'
I am tempted to ask whether anyone can offer a suitable 'second degree'
for the author of the statement - how about a joint honours in Maths and Creative Writing? Any other suggestions?
Regards,
Anne
Anne Robson
Head of Planning
Strategic Planning and Intelligence
Sheffield Hallam University
Pond Street
SHEFFIELD
S1 1WB.
Email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: 0114-225-2984
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