Sorry - I meant reductions in UG Price Group A and B funding, not just B.
Mike
From: Mike Milne-Picken
Sent: 15 December 2010 12:38
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: PG Fees after 2012
No – institutions are already market led for PG as it is (largely) deregulated, though the small amount of public funding does have an impact.
I’m saying that currently there will be an amount of T grant associated with a current fee – HESES10 says for 1 FT PG Price Group C, it is £1,172 (Standard Resource £3951 x 1.3 Price Group C weighting, minus £3951 assumed fee).
If that grant goes as a result of the Spending Review cuts, the gap will have to be plugged and therefore you would expect fees to have to rise across the board by circa £1k+ (assuming some ‘efficiencies’) or a serious reduction in quality. If, however, the fee of say £4,000 becomes £5,000, it will still most likely be well below the ‘typical’ fee £6,000 to £9,000 fee for a UG course in the same subject/department etc. A PG student might well ask whether they are getting less than a UG student as they are paying less.
Will PG Price Group C go? We shall have to wait and see, but according to the BIS equality impact assessment of the UG fee changes on the BIS website, the £2,7billion saved by removing UG C and D from the funding is still significantly less than the £2,9 billion required in savings of the whole non-Research HE funding by the SR; and that’s not taking account the additional costs of the UG student support package over the SR period from 2012 that will occur as a result of the changes agreed by parliament last week. While HEFCE can make savings in some marginal funds, the only other major savings that are possible are reductions in PG and UG Price Group B T funding.
Overall ‘what the market will bear’ will change over the next five years. This is a market and it is both about supply and demand. It may well be unpredictable. The question is what policy assumptions should be made about the changes? Is anyone thinking about it?
Regards
Mike
From: Academic, financial or space planning in UK universities [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Andrew Fisher
Sent: 15 December 2010 11:29
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: PG Fees after 2012
Mike
Are you seriously suggesting that any of us have been charging less than we think the market will bear for Masters programmes because they happen to be in Price Group C?
Andrew
From: Academic, financial or space planning in UK universities [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mike Milne-Picken
Sent: 15 December 2010 11:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: PG Fees after 2012
What’s the thinking in the HEFCE sector about implications of the UG and cuts agenda for PG fees after 2012?
Most of the public discussion has focussed on the UG fees issue, but PG fees will also be a strategic element over the coming months it seems to me.
PG courses in Price Group D have not attracted any HEFCE funding for a long time, over a decade if I recall correctly, and so in effect are a cost recovery/profit based ‘free market’; but Price Group C PG courses do currently attract some T funding. Assuming this T funding goes for new entrants from 2012, institutions will need to plug the gap and PG fees will inevitably rise. Price Group C will presumably become a ‘full cost’ free market alongside Price Group D, but Price Group B will still attract some public funding which may act as a dampener on fee charges for those courses. ELQ policy will then not be relevant to Price Group C and D courses, and so people can do as many Master’s degrees as they can afford, without any need for differential pricing.
If UG fees rise to up to £9,000, how is it possible to justify a PG fee that is less than the equivalent UG programme? Clearly one aspect of the UG cost will be payment to the proposed National Scholarship Fund, in effect a levy on the UG fee that will not be replicated on the PG fee; but once you’ve discounted the cost of that from the UG fee level, is it possible to justify lower PG fees in the market? Probably not in most cases, which means a substantial hike without the backing of publicly funded loans to ease it.
In the longer run post 2015 with honours graduates having debts/’deferred tax liabilities’ of the order of £50,000, will postgraduate numbers be able to continue their current rate of expansion? Where will the private money come from to find the fees and what will be the impact on public funders of PG provision (ie the Research Councils)?
We cannot of course discuss individual fee decisions and levels by institution (to avoid illegal cartels), but there ought to be some sector thinking about the wider policy implications of the UG changes and budget cuts on PG provision – if so, where is it taking place?
Regards
Mike
Mike Milne-Picken
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Royal Northern College of Music
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