5th November 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The Higher Education Commission has published a report which warns that UK universities’ post graduate programmes are failing to produce staff with the skill levels required for today’s economy. The commission highlighted concerns that the education system is designed to attract overseas students because of the increased tuition fees that they bring to the universities.
The report calls for urgent reform of the postgraduate sector, which it claims is necessary in order to prevent long term damage to the UK’s economy. Postgraduate research is at the forefront of innovation in industry, but the system is increasingly neglecting UK students in favour of overseas students who pay higher fees.
The UK now has one of the poorest uptake of postgraduate courses by home students, a fact which the higher education commission says will soon lead to a crisis in our economy. We must invest more in research to allow home students to complete post-graduate research programmes.