Top universities ‘will turn away more UK students’

"Elite universities will turn away increasing numbers of UK students over the next few years in favour of more lucrative international applicants, experts and vice chancellors are warning."

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/29/top-universities-will-turn-away-more-uk-students-as-fees-fail-to-match-costs

Worrying article ...

5. Cap salaries of administrators

Does that include everyone who sits in an office chair earning less than a till-operator in Tesco's?

Honestly, unsurprising.

The most logical decision is to give a place to applicants that give the most money, rather than on talent and ability. It's a shame it has come to this, but I want to make a point more controversially than Wired, it is partially the students fault.

All those protests over the tuition fee increase to 9000 led to extreme worry from the government to increase it any further. Ironically enough, if the tuition fee loan was £20,000 a year, students don't even pay it off anyway. Students aren't even paying off the current £9250 a year loan, never mind if it was increased. Most of the students that would be affected are those with vastly high-paying jobs. In that case, why do most students care if the tuition fee loan is increased when the majority of students affected are those with the richest jobs. Yet, those with the richest job can afford the additional tuition fees. So, raising the tuition fee cap will affect the minority of students since most students don't pay it back anyway.

One interesting caveat, I discovered an article that stated that part-time tuition fees has been at £6750 since at least 2012. Interestingly enough, the Open University has had to make a lot of cuts to their modules over the years, and introduce a lot less topics in their modules. They have made their modules 30/60 credits instead of 15; they cut content from their modules to save money, etc. For example, M208 had geometry cut from the module due to rising costs and they were unable to add it back in. Recently, the Open University said that they were struggling to open up new courses/add content because of costs relating to the courses. That's the reason why the OU does not offer advanced and complex topics in their third year. It is specifically because costs are too high relative to their income they get from students.

So, now I'm wondering whether the whole tuition fee situation needs to be rectified. Universities are struggling to meet costs and are having to cut corners and reduce the quality of the course. Tuition fees must be raised in the future if we are to maintain the same quality of courses we have today.