English Universities in Crisis

"A robust and astute diagnosis of some of the detrimental effects generated by the fee/loan system of funding introduced in 2012 and the regulatory regime established by the Higher Education and Research Act of 2017... a valuable source of arguments for an informed critique of the proposals that are expected to emerge shortly from the Augar Review of university funding and Dame Shirley Pearce’s independent review of the TEF." Council for the Defence of British Universities

"An eloquent and convincing case that the changes in the funding of higher education since 2010 have taken the English university system in a fundamentally mistaken direction". Alasdair Smith, University of Sussex

“An extremely topical up-to-date analysis of recent Government policies and their effect on the public purse, student finance, student behaviour, the university system and the internal management of universities.. will be invaluable for a wide group of readers, from higher education employees and staff to policy makers, the media and students.” Dame Hon Margaret Hodge MP

"Excellent analysis of how UK university reforms since 2012 have proved dysfunctional because they created too little, not too much, competition, and allowed university managements to divert most of the extra fee funding to their own ends. It offers solutions from the insights of two economists and a former VC." Peter Holmes, University of Sussex

"Convincingly undermines the rationale for the funding regime for English higher education established since 2010 - and it does so strictly on the government’s own terms." Peter Scott, Institute of Education, University College London

Jefferson Frank was founding head of the Economics Department at Royal Holloway. Trained as a macroeconomist, Jeff has also extensively investigated the gender pay gap, BME and LGBTQ discrimination, inequality in the university sector, and the current funding and fees crisis. He is the author of The Responsible Economy (Routledge, 2014) and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Norman Gowar, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the University of London, is a former Principal of Royal Holloway. He presented the first lecture ever to be broadcast by the Open University. He co-founded the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Student Complaints and was its first Chairman.

Michael Naef is Reader in Economics at Royal Holloway. He works in experimental economics using weird and wonderful substances (testosterone, estrogen, sulpiride) to see what happens. He has published widely, including in Nature and the American Economic Review.

Introduction

How Did We Get Here?

A Short Note On: The Case for Free Tuition and the Scottish Approach

Markets Without Competition

Stakeholders and Expenditures

Expanding Numbers and Maintaining Standards

A Short Note On: Setting up the OIA

Widening Participation and Student Finance

A Short Note On: The Open University

A Short Note On: The Case for Career Colleges: The US Model, by Lincoln E. Frank

Adjusting to the Future