Any university that failed to do enough to meet its targets could be stripped of the power to charge fees above the basic level of �6,000 when the new tuition fees regime comes into force next year. Serious breaches of an agreement between the watchdog, the Office for Fair Access, and a university could see institutions fined up to �500,000.
Speaking shortly before he retires next week, Mr Lucas said there was ?an undercurrent of concern? among HMC members, who include the heads of Eton, Harrow, and Westminster, about the direction of Lib Dem-influenced higher education policy.
?I?ve noticed the political tensions between the instinct of the Tories ? to leave alone ? and the Lib Dems with their social mobility thing,? he told the Times Educational Supplement.
?I think it?s a real threat to the autonomy of the universities. There is a danger of putting social mobility in at any cost and I think some vice-chancellors are buying into the Lib Dems? view.?
Mr Lucas said he had no concrete evidence yet of bias against privately educated pupils but he suggested that any universities that did discriminate on the basis of a candidate?s schooling would be compromising their academic standards.
?To discriminate is wrong. We are interested in social mobility but not at the expense of downgrading standards.?
From next year, universities that want to charge up to the maximum of �9,000 a year in tuition fees must agree contracts with the ?fair access? regulator on the number of students they take from disadvantaged groups.
England?s leading research universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and the London School of Economics are preparing to admit up to 50 per cent more undergraduates from certain ?hard to reach? groups, including those form poorly performing state schools. Critics have called the arrangements ?quotas by any other name?.
Karl Rove Rick Santorum Arnold Schwarzenegger Rev. Al Sharpton Than Shwe
No comments:
Post a Comment