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[slapntickle]

It's inevitable that with less funding and the push towards privatisation our beloved universities will continue their slide down the greasy pole towards oblivion. Here are the latest facts from an article entitled 'UK drops down global university league table' recently posted at the UCU website:

- the University of York, which climbs one place from eighth to seventh

- it is followed by the University of Warwick (at number 13 again this year), Lancaster University (down from ninth to 14th) and the University of East Anglia (down from 10th to 16th)

- City University London and the University of Bradford have both dropped out of the top 100

- the Open University is the only new British entry, taking joint 99th position

- only three UK universities founded more recently than the 1960s make the list: Plymouth University (joint 53rd), the University of Hertfordshire (75th) and Liverpool John Moores University (joint 88th).

http://www.ucu.org.uk/6678

Well, maybe all us serious academics should be happy that the Open University took 99th position, even though it was shared.

[Dedicated]

Don't forget that these are rankings of the world's top MODERN universities, that is, less than 50 years old (ie. mostly old polytechnics).

The article continues:

[slapntickle]

[robbie_davies]

The next big scandal to hit these shores are 'degrees for international fees'.

There are people graduating from British universities who can't string a sentence together in English but they bring in the cash so it is a free for all.

Mark my words, when this is exposed, there will be a load of new Tesco supermarkets built where universities currently stand.

[Dedicated]

slapntickle,

Yes, I'm trying to be an optimist, but there is one international race top British universities are at risk of losing : the competition to attract and retain the brightest undergraduates, amid the economic realities of higher education on either side of the Atlantic.

Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College and University College London are regularly placed in the top 10 universities in the world. As Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Cambridge Vice- Chancellor wrote last year " We too are in a global competition of Olympic proportions". These achievements are a testament to the quality of the undergraduates, faculty and research students at British universities. The institutions must, however, recognize the evolving economic realities, which mean they can no longer assume top talent will gravitate to them by default. A decade ago, the leading UK universities maintained a virtual oligopoly on able students; now, new-world competitors are poaching their talent.

On the American side, the total gross cost per year - tuition, room, board and fees - of attending Harvard has risen to $52,652. Enabled by the largest university endowment in the world, Harvard College spent $172 million last year on undergraduate financial aid. Families whose annual income is less than $65.000 -whether they are US citizens or not -are not required to pay anything towards their children's education, so many attend Harvard free of charge.

Contrast this with Britain, where tuition fees from 2012 jumped to 9,000 pounds per year at most universities, which still does not cover the cost of educating a student. However, no student in England has to pay fees while they are studying. Rather, they may take on a government-arranged loan, and defer payment until they earn a salary of at least 21,000 pounds per year. There is virtually no bursary scheme, apart from at Cambridge which offers 1,500 pounds for those whose families earn below 35,000 pounds.

Many students are going to the States. Faculties in the UK must accept that raising endowment funding to support undergraduates will be critical to competitiveness. If we cannot attract the best students we will end up being relegated from the top division.

[slapntickle]