1st June 2016 1:00
By Blue Tutors
The government has announced plans to open up the UK universities sector to private providers. The plans would give degree-awarding powers to new private education providers with no previous track record in education. Universities minister Jo Johnson has said that the plans would broaden the education market and that it would encourage incentives for all universities to admit students from a wider range of social backgrounds. The plans have been met with concern from Labour and the universities and colleges union, who have warned that allowing untested private providers could damage the integrity of UK higher education.
A Labour spokesman said that the UK has a reputation for world-leading universities which will be jeopardized by giving degree awarding powers to brand new institutions with no track record. They also warned that allowing private providers could become a Trojan horse for increasing national tuition fees even further. The white paper on education also laid out plans to allow all universities to begin to increase fees. Labour warned that further increases in tuition fees would prevent access to higher education from those from poorer backgrounds, and lead to ever increasing debt levels amongst students. The National Union of Students has also raised fresh concerns over tuition fees, and noted that the government’s plans to raise fees again is deeply worrying.
The University and College Union (UCU) has said that rigorous quality measures would need to be put in place to ensure that new private institutions are offering good quality courses rather than offering cheap, poor quality courses in order to make money quickly. They noted that despite repeated warnings regarding opening higher education in the UK to for-profit providers, the government is going ahead with plans to give degree-awarding powers to brand new providers with no track record. The Institute for Public Policy Research has said that while the government should be investigating possibilities for new providers, they should be careful to avoid for-profit organisations recruiting large numbers of students and failing to provide a good quality education.