Latest Student News - The effect of the recession on Universities

The UK officially fell into recession (defined by 2 quarters of negative growth yesterday which means less public money will be earmarked for colleges and universities - so what does this mean for you? The first signs of the effect on universities was evident in last week's annual government grant letter to the university funding council for England. John Denham (Universities Secretary) began with a warning in it that universities have enjoyed great "security of income and level of customer demand" than the majority of businesses and individuals that they deal with. Denham also berated universities for recruiting more students last year that they were supposed to, which led to him stating that he would not fund them to recruit any extra students for 2009-10. Most importantly he then announced that due to this 'over recruitment' he'd reduce the university funding that he indicated they would get by a whopping £19 million! So what does this really mean? Well after several years of growth in student numbers across the UK, an abrupt cap has been put on any further expansion. During times of recession when jobs are more scare there's a tendancy for a greater number of students to apply to university to gain better skills - therefore competition for places is likely to increase due to this cap. And the effect on student tuition fees? Well there are already indications that due to the lack of funding universities will be looking for a bigger contribution from students, i.e. higher tuition fees. Leeds Met (one of just two universities which set tuition fees below the maximum of £3,145) looks set to raise it's fees above the current level of £2,000 amid fears over the financial situation of the university. As the financial climate gets tougher there is already a widespread feeling that there will be more institutional mergers across the UK. There are clearly tough times ahead for universities which is clearly going to have an impact for students, both in terms of competition for places and the cost of university - in times of recession surely larger loans are the last thing we need.