HE News Brief 29.06.10

by Abby Chau

From poor performance European Universities to a retail store offering degree courses, here are this week’s news:

• A group of experts at the University of Maastricht at Brussels are calling for a manifesto to be drawn in order for differentiation between teaching and research universities, greater autonomy from the government and increased internationalisation. The manifesto urges European universities need to act quickly as performance in general is quite poor in the university world rankings. Europe needs to attract more students from all over the world but the government are reluctant to put any more funding in the higher education. The manifesto highlights the need for graduate contributions and business funding in order to recruit skilled graduates.Full Story: Times Higher Education
• A letter from the Higher Education Funding Council for England announced £200 million cut will be made for universities this year, alongside 10,000 student places would be funded this autumn, the government announces. Tighter savings cost have to be made by universities after 2011. According to University College Union, secretary, Sally Hunt argues making cuts to the this sector is a wrong move at the wrong time.Full Story: Google
• Private colleges in America are being accused of recruiting vulnerable students, leaving them in huge student debts and without any high job prospects. Universities are breaching federal rules to recruit these vulnerable students and are having to fork out in millions to settle these charges. The US Public Interest and Research Group and US Student Association are calling for strong rules to help protect students being recruited by deceptive recruiters on one hand as well as from ruthless lending companies on the other.Full Story: University World News
• It is announced that Kenya will be spending $239 million on its public universities in the next fiscal year. Subsidies to universities will be doubled to $640 million. The 2010-11 budget also revealed 13 new college will be created that will be run by the public universities. However fears are rising as not all the $640 million will be spent on the projects. $512 million is to be spent on expenses and salaries, whilst only $100 million is to be spent on the new projects. Experts have commented the allocation of the $640 million is not enough to finance the enrolment of several tens of thousands of students that have created a backlog for 2 years for students to enter universities. Administrators argue more funding is needed to create facilities in order for more students to be enrolled as institutions lack space. Experts argue failure to match enrolment needs could mean there will be an increase increases to support the larger population of students.Full Story: University World News
• According to The Telegraph, undergraduate places are to be cut, tuition fees to rise and a lot of lecturers jobs are to be slashed due to the UK’s deficit. Tuition fees could raise to £5,000 according to some researchers. The University and College Union, which represents Lecturers have said 6,000 jobs are to go and students will be made to face higher tuition fees. The Russell Group that represents the top 20 universities in the UK argues the cap on student fee should be removed and to adopt a US style where fees could be raised anything up to £20,000.Full Story: Telegraph
• Harrods is to be the first retail store to offer its employees a BA Honours degree in sales. The degree is only available to staff who work in Sales and have worked in Harrods for 2 years.Full Story :Telegraph