No university places for 50,000 with good grades ! a Times headline screams.
In the UK, "Ucas applications are already up by 23 per cent — or 106,389— this year, but the number of places has been cut by 6,000. Last year, 30,000 good students failed to get into university."
"We have got a rise in the number of applicants," Uca head, Ms Curnock Cook said. "Clearly entrance becomes more competitive.”
The Times article by Joanna Sugden provoked a thoughtful debate among readers:
- Is everyone ENTITLED to a university education? I
- Is it a mistake to encourage ALL students to attend university?
- How much to subsidize higher education?
- How to determine which students get in?
These questions deserve serious thought on this side of the Channel as well.
In the USA, all but a handful of states have slashed university budgets and raised tuition due to the financial crisis.
California has been hardest hit. "The Cal State system has lost one-fifth of its state funding in the past two fiscal years, a $625 million reduction, and students have absorbed a 32 percent tuition increase this year. The system's 48,000 employees took a 10 percent pay cut through furloughs -- two full days per month, across the board. The system is cutting 20,000 students this year."--Washington Post.
France, meanwhile, has increased university and research spending--albeit from a very low base--by 2.9%.