How can degree courses get 'full-up' when they're all uncapped with unlimited places?

Ive seen mentioned in various threads on this forum about degree courses being full-up, and people being advised to check with a uni if there are still any places left on a course... ect

However this is confusing me alot, as the last time all the policy publications stated that from 2015/2016 all university degree courses have been made uncapped by the government in terms of number of students they can take on,
so unlimited places effectively.

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/sep/18/removing-cap-student-numbers-six-questions-hepi-report

So which is correct though??

Reply 1

XMaramena

22

Have you ever thought of the fact that you can't fit 150,000 people into one lecture room?

Reply 2

whorace

2

Original post by XMaramena

Have you ever thought of the fact that you can't fit 150,000 people into one lecture room?

why don't we solve the unemployment crisis by hiring 2 million people to come up with a solution to this

ffs whats wrong with this country

Reply 3

Joinedup

20

Uncapped means the uni decides what the cap is rather than the government.

lecture theaters don't have uncapped seating capacity
some courses cost more to deliver per student than the tuition fee - other courses are cheaper than the tuition fee. The uni needs to make sure it's not losing money by having too many students on the expensive courses.

Medicine and some other courses are still capped anyway

Reply 4

Spanish868

OP

Original post by XMaramena

Have you ever thought of the fact that you can't fit 150,000 people into one lecture room?

Yes im fully aware of this,
however im not the education minister, and so it wasn't me personally who published this new ''policy change''.

Im merely a spectator, who has seen this publication, but so is enquiring about what it actually means.

As is it simply just a Lie?
And instead merely means that they have increased the available number of places by 10%-20% (but not uncapped as stated by the government)?

Reply 5

swanseajack1

19

Original post by Spanish868

Ive seen mentioned in various threads on this forum about degree courses being full-up, and people being advised to check with a uni if there are still any places left on a course... ect

However this is confusing me alot, as the last time all the policy publications stated that from 2015/2016 all university degree courses have been made uncapped by the government in terms of number of students they can take on,
so unlimited places effectively.

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/sep/18/removing-cap-student-numbers-six-questions-hepi-report

So which is correct though??

The government used to set quotas for each university and this has been removed. This is what is meant by uncapped. Universities have their own set numbers. The are only so many lecturers and the lecture halls only hold so many so for practical reasons universities have to set their own numbers. It would also be pretty stupid for universities to just take anybody knowing there isn't the accommodation for them to live in the area and many smaller places suffer this problem. Some universities like Durham and Exeter have second campuses miles apart to enable them to increase their numbers. Swansea has recently opened a brand new second campus and this has allowed them to extend their numbers this year. Lampeter part of UWTSD only has a population of 4000 and is very rural so if they doubled their intake just imagine the problems there would be. People would end up living in tents in fields.

Reply 6

Lord Kitchener

16

Theres only so many resources that can be used and after a certain point, that lack of resources will begin to affect students grades too, and then the uni's standings and reputation, so they offer as many places as they can before they reach their dropoff point.

It's fundamental economics, the correlation between the demand and supply. Uncapped means that the uni gets to decide when that drop off is rather than the government and that locality of decision making makes everything more profitable, which is the uni's ultimate goal.

Reply 7

swanseajack1

19

5 years ago before the imposition of the £9000 tuition fee there was a scramble to get into universities that year. Some universities didn't have enough accommodation and one even housed students in a ship

How can degree courses get 'full-up' when they're all uncapped with unlimited places?

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