The British government has woken up to what some universities are calling a ‘postgraduate crisis’ with a pledge of £75 million (€90 million) to fund a string of initiatives aimed at reversing falling demand for masters courses among UK students.
However, this doesn’t mean that a postgraduate loans system is about to be introduced for home and European Union students – despite calls for such a move from a number of higher education and student leaders.
The government and higher education funding chiefs in England say they want to see robust evidence that such a loans system is either desired or necessary before deciding how to invest £50 million to support postgraduates in 2015.
To get things moving the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), is making £25 million available for a pilot project competitive bidding initiative to test different ways of stimulating the domestic taught postgraduate market. The pilot projects will begin in the new year.
Read my full report for University World News : ‘Homegrown’ postgraduate student crisis wake-up call University World News
It looked at:
* How British postgraduates are outnumbered by international students.
* Reaction from HEFCE’s associate director Chris Millward to a call from the now defunct 1994 Group of smaller UK research universities for taught postgraduate student to have access to loans of up to £10,000.
* Views of the National Union of Students to the postgraduate education ‘crisis’.
* New initiatives being launched by the higher education funding council for England to test alternatives to simply finance to encourage more British graduates to continue to a master’s degree.
* Why HEFCE says UK universities shouldn’t raise taught postgraduate fees to the same level (£9,000) being charged for undergraduate courses.
The University World News feature also touched on whether having so many international postgraduates was a positive factor for British higher education.
See the full story here: University World News
