Source: PA

Willetts: sector will be ¡®doing quite well¡¯ if it fills 30,000 new places

Universities may not fill the tens of thousands of extra undergraduate places being made available over the next two academic years, at least in the short term, the universities and science minister has cautioned.

Speaking to Times Higher Education about the planned expansion of undergraduate places, David Willetts said that he thought the sector would be ¡°doing quite well¡± to fill all the 30,000 new places available from 2014-15. Although 30,000 new places would be funded if necessary, Mr Willetts said the figure was at the ¡°high end of our range¡± in terms of how many are likely to be taken up.

The government has ¡°gone for a big figure out of caution¡±, he said.

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His comments come after THE reported last week how some vice-chancellors were concerned that universities might be unable or unwilling to fill the extra places available next year owing to fears that a sudden influx of students might harm their reputation.

From 2015-16, undergraduate numbers will be uncapped altogether in an effort to increase the proportion of British youngsters entering higher education ¨C which the chancellor, George Osborne, has argued is crucial to the country¡¯s economic success.

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The government estimates that when the cap is lifted, an extra 60,000 people will be able to enter higher education each year. This is based on the number of qualified applicants who apply through Ucas but fail to win a place.

Mr Willetts also cautioned that after the cap comes off it would take ¡°another year or two¡± for the sector to reach the 60,000 figure.

But in the longer run, the number of additional undergraduates each year would exceed 60,000, he predicted.

Removing limits on the number of undergraduate places would ¡°transform the behaviour of universities¡±, which could then ¡°go out¡± and attract more students, he added.

Mr Willetts said that he was ¡°frustrated¡± by repeated media reports about poor graduate employment prospects when the salary premium for degree holders ¡°remains pretty solid¡±. ¡°I would like universities to make that point more,¡± the minister emphasised.

Shedding some light on how the uncapped system might be regulated in a speech in Canberra, Australia at the end of February, Mr Willetts said that institutions could be inspected if they take on ¡°unusual¡± numbers of ¡°unplanned¡± extra students.

He clarified to THE that this did not mean that institutions would have to submit their expansion plans to the government or a regulator before growing.

Instead, an inspection by the Quality Assurance Agency could be triggered if there were questions over whether an institution had the ¡°capacity¡± to take on so many new students, he explained.

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He also said that a ¡°surge in dropout rates¡± could be a good proxy for the quality of education an institution was providing.

¡°I don¡¯t want to see a repeat of some of the Australian and particularly American problems¡± around the retention of students, he said.

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Although Mr Willetts did not specify which type of institutions he was referring to, questions over low completion rates have been levelled at for-profit colleges in the US.

A , chaired by Democrat Tom Harkin, found that 54 per cent of students who enrolled in for-profit colleges in 2008-09 had withdrawn by 2010.

david.matthews@tsleducation.com