The outgoing vice-chancellor of a South West university has warned the funding system for higher education is “broken” and has suggested the cap on students’ fees should be lifted.
Stephen Marston, who is retiring after 12 years in the role at the University of Gloucestershire , said a government freeze on how much universities can charge 海角视频-based graduates for tuition had meant universities' main source of income had lost a third of its value in real terms over the past decade.
Currently universities in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland can charge students from England a maximum of £9,250 per year. The Department for Education has extended this to last for the 2024/25 academic year, in a bid to make the system “fairer” for students and taxpayers.
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In an interview with Ian Mean, Gloucestershire director at chamber of commerce Business West, Mr Marston said academic institutions were facing rising operating costs every year, and called for talks with the government on finding ways to ensure university’ income could “keep pace”.
Mr Marston said: “No organisation can carry on forever unable to control its own pricing with fixed income and ever rising costs. That’s where we are and you just can’t do it. Where do you go to increase your income? It is either student fees or taxpayer funded grant or a variance in the apprenticeships levy-or some combination of all three.
“Somehow, if we are to invest in a decent quality experience for students the income has to go up because at present we are having to make savings. “There comes a point where that degrades the service you are able to offer.”
Mr Marston said the University of Gloucestershire was financially stable, but was in the process of making staff cuts and redundancies in a bid to cut costs and stay within its budget.
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The university is currently in the process of transforming a former Debenhams department store in Gloucester into its fourth campus. Once complete, the facility will house thousands of students and hundreds of staff, mainly from the school of health and social care. The university has estimated that the move could add an estimated £86m to Gloucester’s economy and create more than 1,200 jobs.
Mr Marston insisted the university needed its new city campus, as recruiting more students was “our only way out of this financial squeeze”.
“The aim is a bit over 4,000 students at the Debenhams campus, that is the long term ambition", Mr Marston said, adding: "I believe we can still achieve those student numbers because I think the NHS has a close to inexhaustible need for trained, qualified nurses, allied health professionals and doctors.
“We need that space to grow in the Debenhams City Campus building and it brings us into the heart of Gloucester which I think will be inspiring for colleagues. We are where we should be at the heart of our community serving the young people in our community producing skilled public service workers -nurses, teachers and social workers for the community. That’s where we should be.”
Mr Marston said the University of Gloucestershire currently has around 9,000 students split across its three existing campuses and two student villages. He warned if “big financial challenges” currently posed to universities across the country persisted, he could foresee the smaller university becoming part of a larger institution, such as the University of the West of England in Bristol.
He added: “I don’t think it would be good for Gloucestershire if that happened because we are able to work in a very close and engaged way with businesses, with the NHS and a whole range of partners because there is a mutual loyalty that comes from being Gloucestershire. We want to help each other succeed.
“If we were just an outpost of UWE in Bristol, I doubt you would have that sense of mutual loyalty, self- interest and working together.”