Comment / Richard McCarthy

摘要

The austerity of the last few years has certainly affected the funding landscape across the education estate - from primary schools to universities. Higher education underwent a sea-change in 2008 when the government abandoned the 50 year long policy of block grants to universities and other higher education institutions (HEIs), replacing it with higher tuition fees (backed by student loans). At a stroke this had both expected and unexpected consequences. The expected was a move of purchasing power to the student encouraging competition between universities. The unexpected was changes in course structure and building types to recognise this new world. We learned new terms: "student experience" and "student focussed education" which translated into spend on students unions, student residential, and even (shock horror) libraries. The student experience has indeed moved on from two pints of lager and a bag of chips on Saturday night.