Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Fundamental change is needed in the Higher Education sector; it makes economic sense to switch some uni courses to colleges as outsourcing option













Dear All

What do you do when facing cash crisis?

You cut your cloth to suit your budget.

Education is one of the big three election issues that political parties focus on.

It is one of the most unaccountable and unregulated sectors that Scottish Government block grant has.

Far too much money has been spent on universities to the determent of the college sector which the majority of students are working class Scots.

There needs to be a fundamental shift from University to College because the college sector is able to produce high volume of graduates at a much cheaper student to pound ratio.

And it is time that the University sector was contracted rather than expand.

Two ways this could be done; closing failing universities like Glasgow University which is too big a decision politically for any party to make.

The other method is culling large sectors of the universities getting rid of courses that can and should be done at college level.

This would save money, enhance the college sector and allow the college sector to grow properly with better funding options.

One of the effects of the UK budget cuts is that university and college chiefs have warned that many institutions will face thousands of jobs losses.

There is talk of a funding cut of up to 16% to be introduced next year.

This represents a great opportunity rather the disaster painted by the university sector which is rife with greed and excess.

One of the things which people don’t know is that university employees form various external bodies which act like lobbying groups to create the impression that universities have a groundswell of public support.

They don’t, it is smoke and mirrors part of the social elite networking which operates through-out the UK.

So, what is the tab that the taxpayer is skimmed?

Universities and colleges got a budget of about £1.7 billion from the Government last year.

At present there are calls for people to put forward new ideas to deal with the funding crisis.

How to get more Scottish students educated with available financial resources, the answer is simple, cut the universities down and transfer courses to colleges. This will allow for greater number of working class Scots to get opportunity for self advancement which they are currently and steadily being denied by universities.

Glasgow University is ranked 128th in the World, it got £137.11 million in grants in 2009-2010.

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/web/FILES/ReportsandPublications/Facts_and_Figures_2010.pdf

Now follow the link and go to the Scottish Funding Council website and look at the cash given to the various colleges.

It proves my point that a far greater volume of students could receive higher education, it also makes economic sense that they get the opportunity.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I can't fault your logic George, you continually surprise me with your ideas?