Posts Tagged “higher education”
Tuition fees blindness
by Stephen Tall on June 2, 2016
Embed from Getty Images Two things frustrate me about the debate, bubbling up again, about university tuition fees. First, those who decry the current system and then call for a graduate tax, given that the current system is de facto (…)
Liberal Heroes of the Week #82: David Willetts and Douglas Carswell
by Stephen Tall on January 4, 2015
Liberal Hero of the Week (and occasional Villains) is chosen by Stephen Tall, Research Associate at CentreForum. David Willetts Conservative MP, former universities minister Reason: for opposing his party’s plan to cut back the numbers of overseas students So often this column is a toss-up: do I make person X a ‘Liberal Hero’ for opposing […]
Why Lib Dems shouldn’t keep schtum about tuition fees
by Stephen Tall on August 14, 2014
“University tuition fee rise has not deterred poorer students from applying”. That was the headline in The Guardian this week reporting new analysis by the Independent Commission on Fees chaired by Will Hutton: The raising of tuition fees to £9,000 has not put off students from disadvantaged backgrounds from applying to university – although the […]
My column for ConHome: The immigration choice for the Conservatives – pro-business, or pro-UKIP?
by Stephen Tall on March 13, 2014
Here’s my latest The Other Side column for ConservativeHome, published here on Tuesday. Who’d have thought a column talking about immigration, Europe and Ukip would get their readership so exercised? My thanks as ever to the site’s editors, Paul Goodman (…)
The social divide of access to higher education: my take on what universities need to get better at. (Hint: EVIDENCE)
by Stephen Tall on January 24, 2014
I took part in the first ‘Directors Debate’ yesterday – on the real value and true price of scholarships in higher education – organised by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education at Senate House in London yesterday. We had 5 (…)
“But don’t all US alumni give back to their university?”
by Stephen Tall on April 19, 2013
The publication this week of the latest UK university fundraising figures gives me a timely excuse to dust down this #QTWTAIN. There’s a common assumption that pretty much all alumni at US universities (and certainly the elite Ivy League) give (…)
Forget PCC elections, here’s a far more worrying low turn-out statistic
by Stephen Tall on November 16, 2012
Here’s a graph showing the proportion of pupils predicted BBB at A-level who apply to at least two of the most selective universities according to the type of school they attend – the data’s from this Sutton Trust / Government (…)
Mike Moritz’s gift to Oxford: a couple of thoughts from me
by Stephen Tall on July 12, 2012
Oxford University was yesterday able to unveil what is probably the largest ever pledged donation towards student financial assistance in the history of any European university. The bountiful benefactor? Mike Moritz, Welsh son of an academic emigre father who fled (…)
Sometimes, the best thing government can do is back off. (Or ‘Putting an end to the dependency culture in our universities’)
by Stephen Tall on February 15, 2012
By nature I’m an optimist. But sometimes, usually when reading The Guardian, I become depressed by the sight of intelligent people indulging in some form of middle-class dependency culture. Here’s an example I came across today. It’s an article by (…)
Tuition fees: three quick reflections on this week’s debate
by Stephen Tall on February 2, 2012
I’ve blogged a few times this week about the post-£9k tuition fees university application figures — here are a further three quick thoughts: Mature students Largely missing from the media’s coverage of the headline-grabbing drop in overall applications, is the (…)
