First Private Sector University College for more than 30 years
Universities minister, David Willetts, is planning to announce the UK’s first new private sector university college for than 30 years. Willets will allow London-based BPP, which has 14 regional branches, to become a university college. The new college, which offers law and business degrees, wants to expand into health and teaching degrees. According to Mr Willets private universities will help to create a "dynamic and flexible" degree system, however, this has been fiercely opposed. The new private-sector university college has wants to be ready to set up a range of new courses within the next 12 months. Mr Willets believes it is healthy to have a vibrant private sector working alongside the more traditional universities, and conferred university college status with immediate effect. BPP itself is part of the group that owns one of the biggest universities in the United States, the University of Phoenix. The profit-making university sector has grown rapidly in the United States - and this seems to signal the intention to have more such private providers in the UK. The UCU lecturers' union warned against an expansion of the private sector, claiming that it is the start of a downward spiral. However, the government sees this expansion into the private sector as a way of tackling the financial pressures and lack of places facing the university system. Private universities would add extra capacity, when hundreds of thousands of applicants are set to miss out on places this autumn. The BPP University College will also receive no money from the higher education funding councils, but as a private university it will be able to set its own level for tuition fees. The public sector universities have faced a strict limit on expansion, with individual universities facing fines of up to £3m for recruiting too many students last year. BPP already has degree-awarding powers. It has 6,500 students taking courses in its law and business schools and a further 30,000 taking accountancy qualifications. It will be the first private university college to have been created since Buckingham in the 1970s, which was first created a university college and then later became the University of Buckingham. This announcement on setting up the new university college will be seen as another piece in the jigsaw of re-shaping higher education. A review of funding and fees in higher education is set to report in the autumn. Speaking ahead of its findings, ministers have spoken of the need for a more varied system, including more private providers, two-year degrees and students living at home. There are also disputes over whether tuition fees should be increased or a graduate tax should be introduced which is incredibly controversial and could put many students off studying a degree altogether.
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