ONS and Augar Review

You’ll be aware that the Office for National Statistics’ review of the ways of accounting for student loans reported on Monday and confirmed what had been widely expected – namely that the Government would have to account separately for that portion of student loans that is not expected to be repaid (something called partitioned loan-transfer). This will have a significant impact on the public sector deficit as, for this portion, the Government will no longer be able to treat “interest payments receivable” as income and will have to treat the loan allocations as expenditure (recorded as capital). Estimates suggest that this might add as much as £12bn to the public sector deficit. Although the overall long term cost of the funding scheme for higher education will not change, the ONS changes will effectively bring the costs of loan-write-offs forward, increasing the current costs and making them much more visible. And this will create further pressure in relation to the outcome of the Augar review, although it has been argued that if the ONS Review makes the costs of the loan system more visible, it may also make it easier for government to reduce its loan-based funding

The latest leak from the Augar review has suggested that students with lower than three D grades would no longer be eligible for student loans (as a way of controlling numbers in order to manage costs). This same story also repeated the fee cut claim (to £6.5k-£7.5k), although with no reference to any top-up funding for STEM subjects. What all this means for funding remains the subject of much speculation and there is unlikely to be much that is tangible until after the comprehensive spending review.

2019 Intake Numbers

For the next session, while overall numbers of new students sector-wide are expected to decline due to the demographic dip, applications to Warwick are currently some 8% ahead of the same time last year (HEU are up by 8% and International by 14%). Nationally, applications are down by 5% but our immediate competitors are seeing an increase of around 2%. Naturally there is considerable variability across disciplines although applications in the STEM disciplines are generally looking most buoyant.

Maternity Pay for Research Students (Scholarship holders)

In case you haven’t heard, ARC has approved a proposal from the Graduate School that all students in receipt of full University-funded student/scholarships (fees and stipend) be entitled to receive maternity, adoption, paternity and shared parental leave pay at the maximum of their current annual stipend rate or Research Council UK (RC) rate, whichever is lower. Further details will follow.

Immigration White Paper

There are proposals for two main changes to existing immigration policy: first, that the UK’s future visa regime would treat EU and non-EU and non-EU migrants similarly and second, that priority would be given to Tier 2 visa applicants who are classified as skilled migrants (this include academics, though not necessarily support or professional services staff). There are a number of existing policies that would remain:

• International graduates can stay in the UK for a total of six months to search for an employer willing to sponsor them.
• Newly qualified PhDs can still stay for 12 months.

However, there is nothing in the current proposals that suggests any more flexible arrangement for researchers.

There is an unusually long period of consultation on the white paper and that will create opportunities for the sector to do more work to persuade the Home Office to reconsider its position on arrangements around skilled migrants and students.

ARC Autumn Review

The ARC Autumn Review took place just after the end of term and focused on both a backward look at Departmental performance as well as a forward look at themes that we might wish to address in the planning round. We were also able to sign off target student number targets (which will be a major input to the income budget) and review a number of bids to the Strategic Fund. The Strategic Fund bids are subject to UEB approval and will be announced early in the new year.

ARC Chairs of Faculty also reviewed the Q1 outcomes at Department level and your key finance contacts will be in touch to let you know whether we have been able to extend your spending delegations. ARC currently sits ahead of budget at Q1, partly as a result of additional income from extra students and partly as a result of some delay in filling posts.

CSAG Update

Amongst a number of routine activities, CSAG has been looking at options to make cost effective use of the current Sports Centre once the new facility is opened. With large amounts of flat floor space there is clear potential to make use of some of the space for examinations, for student study/activity space, and for teaching space. The building has a limited life and so the aim is to work towards maximum functionality at the lowest possible cost. In addition, CSAG also reviewed the plans for the refurbishment of the Library and agreed that this should progress to the design phase.