Govt Policy “Leap In The Dark” Claims Top Prof

A senior tutor has claimed the government’s tuition fee policy is a “leap in the dark” and that it could damage state school intake.

000 9000 Churchill College cuca leap in the dark richard partington tuition fee rises tuition fees

A research paper by a leading academic has branded the government’s fees regime a “leap in the dark”, and said it could make it harder to maintain state school intake.

In a paper released today Richard Partington, Senior Tutor at Churchill College, warned that the government plans could make maintaining state school intake “vastly harder in ways which at present we can only guess at.”

Because of this, Partington suggested that a wider and more flexible target should be set for state school intake to account for the “uncertainty around university applications in this new world.” The current target is 60-63%.

Nonetheless, the Uni council decided last Friday to stick to a 63% target. Intake is currently 58%, but in order to qualify for £9,000 fees, the Uni will have to up their intake to 60-63%.

Earlier this term Clegg warned the University that they would have to do more than hit such targets, and would have to implement measures to up state school intake if they wanted to charge the maximum fee.

But Callum Wood, chair of Cambridge University Conservative Association, said it wasn’t up to Universities. He told The Tab: “Academics across the country are taking the blame for a problem that starts much earlier. The proportion of state-educated students is barely anything to do with the universities.”

Earlier this week University minister David Willetts also said that top unis such as Cambridge could look ‘silly’ if they opted to charge £9,000 fees.