Higher education

This House of Commons briefing paper discusses the university admissions system and the various review of university admissions. The Office for Students launched its review on 27 February 2020. On 22 July 2019 Universities UK launched its own separate review of admissions which was published on 13 November 2020. On the same day Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson said that it was his intention to consider post-qualification university admissions and that the government will consult on proposals to “remove the unfairness” in the university admission system. The paper focuses on the use of predicted grades for university admissions, the increase in unconditional offers by universities, contextual admissions and issues around a post qualification admissions system.

A Westminster Hall debate on petitions relating to Tuition Fees is scheduled for Monday 16 November 2020. The motion for debate is: "That this House has considered e-petitions 300528, 302855, 306494, 324762, and 552911, relating to tuition fees". The subject for this debate was determined by the Petitions Committee and Petitions Committee member Chris Evans MP, will open the debate.

This House of Commons briefing paper outlines the current funding system for: healthcare students, medical and dentistry students and paramedics and discusses the impact of the 2017 reforms on entrants to healthcare degrees. It also outlines new funding arrangements for nursing, midwifery, healthcare students and paramedics from September 2020.

Education spending peaked in around 2010 at 5.5% of GDP or £104 billion (2019-20 prices). It has fallen since then, but how much of this is due to changes to definitions, where does this leave the UK compared to other countries and how does this fall in spending compare to others over the past seven decades?

Headline student numbers have increased to new records following a short dip after to the 2012 reforms. There are however ongoing concerns about numbers outside this group where trends have not been so positive, including part-time undergraduates, some postgraduates students, overseas students from some countries, especially Nigeria and Malaysia, mature students and some disadvantaged groups. There is also considerable concern about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and student numbers, particularly those from overseas and uncertainty about the impact of Brexit on EU student numbers.

On Thursday 15 October 2020 at 1.30pm, there will be a Westminster Hall Debate on a "Disability inclusive Covid-19 response". The debate will be led by Dr Lisa Cameron MP.

Higher education underwent fundamental changes to how it was financed in England 2012. There have been ongoing smaller changes since then and prospects for much larger changes following the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding. How has this affected the balance between the broad sources of funding -the taxpayer and graduate and how has the total funding from all sources for universities changed?

This short briefing paper looks at educational trajectories for Black pupils and students in England.

Student loans are the main method of direct government support for higher education students. More than £17 billion is loaned to students each year. The value of outstanding loans at the end of March 20 reached £140 billion. The Government forecasts the value of outstanding loans to be around £560 billion (2019‑20 prices) by the middle of this century. The expansion of loans has raised questions about graduate repayments and ultimately the cost of the system to the taxpayer

In the UK, higher education (HE) is a devolved matter and each nation has its own finance arrangements and student funding system. This paper outlines the student support systems for undergraduate higher education students in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It sets out the amount of funding that students may receive and references recent debates and developments in HE funding across the UK.

This House of Commons library paper gives an overview of the first sale of a tranche of English income-contingent student loans. It gives background to the sale and discusses the impact of the sale on borrowers and whether value for money was achieved by the sale. The Government announced the end of the sales programme in Budget 2020.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic there have been concerns about the financial impact on universities. Much of this has focussed on the potential loss of international students, but there could also be losses in income from lower home student numbers, a drop in research work and less revenue from accommodation, catering and conferencing. What are the size of these impacts and what has the Government done to support the sector?

In recent months the largely cordial relationship between the UK and China has deteriorated sharply. This has happened after over two decades when, regardless of the political complexion of successive UK governments, the trend was towards closer engagement and cooperation. This briefing looks at why and how this has happened.