01.08.11
Unlimited university places for top students
From 2012, universities will be able to take on unlimited numbers of students with the highest results. If universities do not have a sufficient number of high achievers, then they could risk losing funding.
Steve Smith, the outgoing president of Universities UK, says that financial incentives may be offered to attract top students. He told the BBC: “The complication for universities is if you don't recruit the same percentage of students with AAB or better than you had last year what happens is you lose the funding for those students.
“That means those students become very attractive and thus institutions will do what they can to lower the cost of attending university in order to attract them.”
Although ministers insist that strict new criteria will be in place to target high achievers from low-income backgrounds as well, the shadow universities minister Gareth Thomas is concerned that money traditionally used to help the more disadvantaged will now be used to attract very intelligent students instead.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: “I fail to see how moving from a system where there is collaboration between institutions to one which encourages cut-throat competition is in the interest of our sector."
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