Legal challenges to student quotas - Domestic v international students
The Government has announced that it will cut the number of people allowed to enter the country on student visas as part of an overall plan to reduce immigration in the UK.
Critics are concerned that the cut will impact upon the funding, and hence quality, of further education and higher education providers. It will not free the way for additional domestic and EU students because of the existing caps on those students. Instead, it may remove a crucial source of funding for providers and the UK economy as a whole, given that international students pay higher fees than domestic and EU students.
Safeguarding funding streams
The Government’s new white paper on education will encourage "customer driven" education and training. It will allow competition by new providers, such as further education colleges offering cut-price vocational degrees, and introduce competition between universities to increase student numbers and charge high fees, in most cases near the new maximum permitted £9,000 cap.
The Government also proposes diverting those students who it believes should not be in "real" higher education into apprenticeship degrees, delivered by further education providers in competition with private providers. This will reduce both higher education student numbers and fees.
Legal viability of colleges becoming "careers brokers"
The Department for Work and Pensions has launched a new welfare-to-work programme, known as the Work Programme, which is designed to encourage training providers to find jobs for learners whilst also teaching learners new skills. Learners will join the programme for up to two years and providers will receive staged funding over that period provided that the learners remain in employment. The forty providers will be in place for up to seven years, giving them the opportunity to build relationships with local businesses and to have the best chance of placing learners in appropriate long-term jobs.
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