1. Freedom from government interference and revenue, which would end the social engineering of our great education system and allow for the best candidates to study, in effect privatise the universities into corporates which are run by a board of trustees (whose makeup would depend on the local circumstances). Allow for a massive tax break for donations/grants/ legacies to the university, to supplement the fees paid by students. In addition the university should be free to obtain commercial loans, overdrafts, sell bonds, raise capital and obtain finance from the private sector. Also allow new universities to be built, if there is the money to do so- if we can have 'faith' schools, why not have 'faith' universities?
2. Abolish tuition fees, the most erroneous phrased name for a fee ever devised as it makes out university is just like school- when you are spoon fed and can get away with writing essays using 1 general book and notes from the teacher's lesson . The tuition fee should be replaced by a general fee for the whole cost of the students time at university (library, gym, halls accommodation in the first year and the tiny part of the course which is the lecture theatre).
3. Freedom for the universities to set their own fee level, which would in reality be tempered by the market, as parents/students looked for the best deal for themselves.
4. Payment Freedoms - various. Grants, either public or private plus old fashioned scholarships, sponsorships, or patrons. Then there is loans, which should be flexible, for example interest only, capital and interest, fixed or floating, investment or even bonds.
5. Freedom to set their own student levels -self explanatory really, but allow universities to decide how many students they wish to have come through the gates.
1 comments:
Anything that delivers anything from the dead hand of the state is to be welcomed. Whatever the detailed pros and cons of Lordy Lav's suggestions, the bottom line is release from state control.
It is an absurd side-effect of the 1944 welfare reforms that now, somehow, it is assumed that it is natural for the state to be responsible for health and education. State-run schools and medical services are the default position, with any private provision being viewed as 'opting out'.
It has been said before, but bears repetition: Imagine if the car industry were state-run -- oh, yes, we had that with the BMC and its successors; that was a raging success. Imagine if telecoms were state-run -- oh yes, we had that, didn't we, where we had to wait 6 months for a phone to be installed (if we were lucky). Imagine if the clothing industry were state-run; or housing; or food. The result of such things always turns out to be Trabants, shortages, dishonest statistics about tractor production, queues and Mao suits.
So let's get rid of the remaining dinosaurs of state control: the NHS and the education system. The resulting problems (and there would certainly be some) would be nothing compared to the appalling mess we now have.
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