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[News] Universities on the brink?



Spiros

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2003
2,361
Too far from the sun
Potentially shutting down your business to the world's biggest trading block will not do a business any good.
As Ernest alluded to earlier I think the more likely reason is offering relatively useless courses to students who have started to realise that they might actually be better off getting a trainee job or apprenticeship as that comes with pay and without the £9,500 'debt'
 




vegster

Sanity Clause
May 5, 2008
27,892
They need to get better chancellors and vice chancellors in, bung another £100k on their wages and it will all get sorted.
 


Carrot Cruncher

NHS Slave
Helpful Moderator
Jul 30, 2003
5,052
Southampton, United Kingdom
Good shout. They were struggling as "New College Southampton" 20 years ago but were then sustained by generally expanded student numbers.

20 years ago, SSU was called Sourhampton Institute (or the destitute as some wags nicknamed it). New College was part of the University of Southampton.
 


Moshe Gariani

Well-known member
Mar 10, 2005
12,071
20 years ago, SSU was called Sourhampton Institute (or the destitute as some wags nicknamed it). New College was part of the University of Southampton.
Yes, you're right. Getting my low tariff HE institutions in Soton mixed up...
 


Mellor 3 Ward 4

Well-known member
Jul 27, 2004
9,799
saaf of the water
As Ernest alluded to earlier I think the more likely reason is offering relatively useless courses to students who have started to realise that they might actually be better off getting a trainee job or apprenticeship as that comes with pay and without the £9,500 'debt'

You might like to revisit that debt figure.

Most Universities are charging £9k a year and providing as little as 10 hours per week (or even less in some cases) contact time.

Most students are now leaving University with between 40-50k of debt.

The system is broken.
 




The Clamp

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jan 11, 2016
24,505
West is BEST
As Ernest alluded to earlier I think the more likely reason is offering relatively useless courses to students who have started to realise that they might actually be better off getting a trainee job or apprenticeship as that comes with pay and without the £9,500 'debt'

I would imagine that feeds into it. There is more than one reason.
 


seagulls4ever

New member
Oct 2, 2003
4,338
Since this government lifted the cap on student numbers three years ago, Sussex seems to have become busier and busier. They might advertise courses as AAA or AAB, but in reality they let in huge numbers of students with grades far lower than that, because of course they want the money. Not only does this bring the overall level of the courses down, it also means that class sizes are far too high. Contact hours are generally pretty low too.There were plans to build a new science building, but it was decided that they didn't actually have the budget for what they wanted and now the plans are being revised.

In 14/15 there were 13,725 students. In 17/18 there were 17,626. The number's now over 18,000 I believe. They are not struggling with student numbers.
 


Napier's Knee

New member
Mar 23, 2014
1,099
West Sussex
Definitely Southampton Solent and maybe University of the Arts, Bournemouth? Defenitely isn't an institution in Sussex
 




El Presidente

The ONLY Gay in Brighton
Helpful Moderator
Jul 5, 2003
39,707
Pattknull med Haksprut
I don't understand how any universities can be struggling. I was talking to one of my old lecturers a few years ago and he said they had double the number of students (since my day) but no new members of staff. He was complaining vociferously about the workload. Student numbers have risen since then too. So, if the income is doubling or tripling but operational costs are staying roughly the same -although will be some capital cost increases - how on earth can universities be struggling?

I see that vice chancellor salaries have increased 41% in the last decade as universities have become more prosperous. Something doesn't add up

Lecturers moaning is nothing new!
 


El Presidente

The ONLY Gay in Brighton
Helpful Moderator
Jul 5, 2003
39,707
Pattknull med Haksprut
I may be wrong but I thought the real money is made by a uni from students outside of the Eu? The numbers of these aren't likely to be affected by Brexit as the rules won't change for them

Non EU students are a very lucrative source of income, but the agenda driven politically motivated intstructions to the Border Agency have made it more difficult for students to get to the UK, and so they go elsewhere. It's not been helped by private sector colleges abusing the visa system in recent years to get more unsuitable young people to attend their courses, and the reaction from the Border Agency has been to target everyone, rather than the cowboy operators.
 
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BNthree

Plastic JCL
Sep 14, 2016
10,879
WeHo
Totally irrelevant to the thread but always found it odd the University of Sussex only has 1 campus and that's in Brighton whereas the University of Brighton has several campuses that are spread across Sussex.
 








Gwylan

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
31,336
Uffern
What would happen to the students if a uni did go bust? If you're two and a bit years into a course, would you be expected to start again from scratch? It would leave some students with 100 grand's worth of debt. Or would they transfer to another uni, with the risk that not all syllabuses are the same.
 




Goldstone1976

We Got Calde in!!
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Apr 30, 2013
13,783
Herts
What would happen to the students if a uni did go bust? If you're two and a bit years into a course, would you be expected to start again from scratch? It would leave some students with 100 grand's worth of debt. Or would they transfer to another uni, with the risk that not all syllabuses are the same.

Any fule kno that the plural of syllabus is syllabub.
 




sir albion

New member
Jan 6, 2007
13,055
SWINDON
Potentially shutting down your business to the world's biggest trading block will not do a business any good.
Won't be anywhere near as big once we finally leave and it's just a big group of countries that only has a few big players including us.

Universities are bloody everywhere now and obviously they're all gunning for foreign students as we get about 140,000 a year.
More ways to make money for them and clearly the education becomes second fiddle to the almighty buck as many students will never get that job they want and they won't pay their debts back.
60% of all student debts are never paid back so all these universities are a waste of space!!
 


Westdene Wonder

New member
Aug 3, 2010
1,787
Brighton
Thanks for that....interesting (junior is at UoB Eastbourne campus)

Too many kids were pushed towards Uni education IMO (particularly during the Blair years), presumably led to the Unis having to expand and invest to cope with the numbers.

As a result too many degree holders chasing fewer vacancies
 






BNthree

Plastic JCL
Sep 14, 2016
10,879
WeHo
Potentially shutting down your business to the world's biggest trading block will not do a business any good.

Also any uni that does a lot of serious science research will get a lot of the research funding from European institutions and initiatives. Scientific researchers are crapping themselves at potentially losing a huge portion of their funding.
 


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