{"id":64394,"date":"2022-08-18T04:13:51","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T08:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=64394"},"modified":"2022-08-18T04:13:51","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T08:13:51","slug":"how-england-plans-to-cut-back-low-value-degrees-so-it-can-reap-more-student-loan-repayments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-england-plans-to-cut-back-low-value-degrees-so-it-can-reap-more-student-loan-repayments\/","title":{"rendered":"How England plans to cut back \u2018low value\u2019 degrees so it can reap more student loan repayments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rishi Sunak, one of the candidates to be the UK\u2019s next prime minister, has vowed to \u201ccrack down<\/a>\u201d on university degrees with poor career outcomes. This is not a new idea. The university regulator in England, the\u00a0Office for Students<\/a>, has already proposed setting\u00a0minimum thresholds<\/a>\u00a0for the proportion of graduates from each course that should be in jobs it defines as highly skilled.<\/p>\n

A course that does not meet\u00a0the regulator\u2019s expectations<\/a>\u00a0would be prevented from recruiting publicly financed students. The thresholds the Office for Students has proposed are that 60% of people completing their first full-time degree should be in highly skilled jobs within 18 months of completing the course. For full-time masters students, the proposed proportion is 70%. The final levels will be confirmed in September.<\/p>\n

Students, of course, do not go to university for their career prospects alone. They are motivated by interest in their subject, and by the social, cultural and sporting opportunities at university. They look for the personal growth that comes from meeting new people in a different place.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, after university graduates are\u00a0moving between jobs<\/a>\u00a0or even careers more than their parents did. In this context, the government\u2019s focus on graduate employment may seem strange or shortsighted.<\/p>\n

The reason for this focus lies in the financing of English higher education and how much it now costs the government. In 2012, the government tripled the level of\u00a0undergraduate tuition fees<\/a>\u00a0up to \u00a39,000 per year. This was made possible by switching grants to universities into government loans to students. These are currently repayable by graduates as a proportion of their salary above an earnings threshold, then written off if they are not fully repaid after 30 years.<\/p>\n

Alongside this, the government promoted competition, with the promise that universities would become more responsive to\u00a0students as consumers<\/a>. It removed controls on recruitment, brought new universities into the system, and\u00a0established<\/a>\u00a0a market regulator \u2013 the Office for Students.<\/p>\n

The cost of education<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In this more competitive system, it was expected that students would only be willing to pay higher fees for courses leading to higher earnings. The more these students went on to earn as graduates, the more likely they would be to pay back their student loans in full.<\/p>\n

Other courses would need to charge lower fees or students would decide not to go to university at all. The system would manage demand for higher education and maximise the repayment of loans, controlling the costs to government.<\/p>\n

However, despite government expectations, most universities have charged the highest fees since 2012 across most subject areas, recognising that lower fees could signal poor quality and deter students. Most\u00a0young people<\/a>\u00a0have not been put off by higher fees, even for courses with lower graduate earnings. This is because they have wanted to go to university for reasons beyond their career prospects alone.<\/p>\n

In 2012, the government did not need to count any loan write-off within its accounts until it happened, so it was a problem it could defer to its successors. In 2018, though, the Office for National Statistics\u00a0decided<\/a>\u00a0that the proportion of loans expected to be written off should count immediately towards the balance of government spending on higher education.<\/p>\n

By 2020<\/a>, the government expected to write off more than 50% of the value of student loans, compared with around 30% when fees were increased in 2012. Before the 2012 reforms, the annual cost of higher education participation to the government was \u00a37 billion, and the change in financing was expected to save \u00a33 billion. Instead, the annual cost increased to \u00a310 billion in 2020.<\/p>\n

Alongside other\u00a0measures proposed by the government<\/a>\u00a0to change the terms of loans, graduate employment thresholds are intended to address these rising costs. They cut out funding for courses less likely to repay loans.<\/p>\n

Course closures<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This focus on graduate outcomes has\u00a0led to concerns<\/a>\u00a0that future regulation is causing course closures, particularly in the humanities.<\/p>\n

It is more likely, though, that these closures are due to competition.\u00a0The latest data<\/a>\u00a0shows that humanities applications from students in England reduced by 5% between 2019 and 2022, compared with an increase of 15% to applications overall.<\/p>\n

Due to their lower fixed costs and space requirements, there are better financial returns to humanities courses than many other subjects and it is easier for more popular universities to expand them. This means that others rapidly lose students and become unsustainable.<\/p>\n

Experience worldwide<\/a>\u00a0suggests that the interests and aspirations of young people and their families drives higher education expansion. Every August, as students in England receive their examination results, ministers become more concerned about ensuring sufficient places for them than controlling the system. This is because capping higher education is an unpopular constraint on ambitions. It is student demand that shapes higher education, and regulation is unlikely to change this.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Chris Millward is Professor of Practice in Education Policy, University of Birmingham<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rishi Sunak, one of the candidates to be the UK\u2019s next prime minister, has vowed to \u201ccrack down\u201d on university degrees with poor career outcomes. This is not a new idea. The university regulator in England, the\u00a0Office for Students, has already proposed setting\u00a0minimum thresholds\u00a0for the proportion of graduates from each course that should be in […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[430337],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-64394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-graduate-outcomes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow England plans to cut back \u2018low value\u2019 degrees so it can reap more student loan repayments - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-england-plans-to-cut-back-low-value-degrees-so-it-can-reap-more-student-loan-repayments\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How England plans to cut back \u2018low value\u2019 degrees so it can reap more student loan repayments - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rishi Sunak, one of the candidates to be the UK\u2019s next prime minister, has vowed to \u201ccrack down\u201d on university degrees with poor career outcomes. 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