Dear Critters,
After seeing Stephen's e-mail to Mr Willetts I was lucky enough to have
the opportunity to speak with Mr Willetts directly at Queen Mary and 1)
ask for clarification, and 2) point out the error of his ways.
In terms of clarification he said that the 'off-quota' would apply only to
sponsored places of some sort - either charities or businesses. It would
not apply to 'lone' students able to pay up-front.
Whilst this response was somewhat better than the media reports published
earlier that day, it still underscored that the government had not spotted
its "error". So I pointed it out:
The whole idea is to create extra capacity in the system by putting
sponsored places "off-quota", thereby allowing other students to fill
those places "on-quota". There are currently thousands of sponsored
places throughout the university system whose fees are paid upfront by
employers. We can expect this level of sponsorship to continue for future
intakes. For every sponsored place designated "off-quota", the government
will have to pay the annual fee for the now "on-quota" replacement
non-sponsored student. This will greatly INCREASE the cost to the tax
payer - which is the opposite of what the cap was for. Increasing
capacity like this is not a zero sum game.
Poor Mr Willetts - he did go quite pale.
Best wishes to all!
Erica (QM)
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