Politicians should leave universities alone

Leftie ministers wanted quotas to boost diversity. Now those from the centre right want quotas to ensure bright kids from poor backgrounds get a certain percentage of university places.

Politicians .... Is there nothing they can’t run better than folk outside of Westminster?

Surely, if universities were left to their own devices, they would have an even greater self-interest than politicians in wanting to see the most able students, from the widest range of backgrounds, study for degrees? University vice chancellors, even more so than ministers, have good reason to want to see bright young people, who’d otherwise be barred by high fees, admitted to university.

Does it really need ministers to get involved? Imagine if ministers started to decree how often your local Tesco stayed open for, or when you could access LastMinute.com? So why trust them to run the seats of learning on which our future wealth as a nation depends?

If you think about it for two second, Whitehall setting university admissions quotas isn’t really very Big Society, is it?

Posted on 23 August 2010 by Douglas Carswell

Comments

Indeed Mr Carswell! And where do they get it from...? The eu of course - which slowly but surely is trying to dictate every aspect of our lives - right down to the toilet paper we use!

Posted on 23 August 2010 12:23 by yaosxx

I too am a bit bemused by how left wing our conservative government is turning. Imposing top down quotas in education is what has got us into this mess in the first place - time to get back to a university education for the brightest minority, not the socially engineered majority.

Posted on 23 August 2010 12:27 by Ruth

let each university charge its own price.ensure that the finite money from the taxpayer is targeted to the students from poor families.limit the total number of places as to what the nation can afford.

Posted on 23 August 2010 12:44 by william

Mr Willetts should be allowing parents to open more grammar schools where wanted, not social engineering.

Posted on 23 August 2010 14:58 by hyufd

"...the seats of learning on which our future wealth as a nation depends"

That's a huge assumption right there, Douglas, and not one that is necessarily supported by empirical research (e.g. see http://tinyurl.com/3xdmhhu, or a great book by the same author: http://tinyurl.com/35g5w27)

Whilst the myth of the desirability/necessity of widespread higher education is one to which both the political left and right subscribe (for reasons of 'social mobility', or to enable UK plc to 'complete in the global knowledge economy'), surely in these economical challenged times a more evidential approach is warranted? It would take a brave politician to walk down that road, though, so I'm not holding my breath.

Posted on 23 August 2010 15:49 by Morlock

"Imagine if ministers started to decree how often your local Tesco stayed open for, or when you could access LastMinute.com?"

Well, yes. It'd be just as you have warned several times: waiting lists for bananas.

Government of all kind urgently needs to be rolled back (under its rock). Leaving the EU is, of course, a must. Our domestic parasite class (no offence) would then have their days filled with actual work, rather than baleful meddling.

Or else we can continue on our present course and all those idiots who idolise Cuba and North Korea will get to find out first hand what living in a socialist dump is really like.

Posted on 23 August 2010 16:00 by cornyborny

Where's have all the Conservatives gone? Aren't they the 'small state' party?

This is the sort of nonsense scheme so beloved by the last lot; you know the ones that believed that the state was the only true source of light and goodness in the universe.

Its time to get rid of Cameron, or split. We need a 'small state/free-trade/ low tax/ anti-EU' party in this country. Until this happens there is a huge section of the electorate whose voice is completely unrepresented in parliament (except by Mr Carswell of course, but we cant all move to Harwich!)

Posted on 23 August 2010 16:38 by Redbull

It's time we got rid of all those people in Parliament who wnat to dictate and tell us how to lead ouor lives. They are there at our behest to Govern the country in the total bestinterests for its population, not to run the country for their own, friends and business people interests

Posted on 23 August 2010 17:51 by Alf Cavill

"Imagine if ministers started to decree how often your local Tesco stayed open for..."

The Sunday Trading Act? Condem proposals to place more restrictions on licensing hours?

Posted on 23 August 2010 20:51 by StevenL

The only reason to consider this at all is because the state schooling system is failing to prepare students adequately. Fix the schools. Provide schools of academic excellence accessible to all (grammar schools anyone?) and the problem goes away.

Posted on 23 August 2010 22:23 by It doesn't add up...

"Imagine if ministers started to decree how often your local Tesco stayed open for"

But Douglas, they do. A remnant from the bad old days still restricts Easter Sunday to stay closed, because it was accidentally left off the list, and local authorities apply the LETTER rather than the spirit of the law to any supermarkets that do venture to open.

That would be an easy and nice target for the coalition to tidy up.

Alan Douglas

Posted on 23 August 2010 22:58 by Alan Douglas

Agree with William.

Let Universities set their own fee levels. People pay to go. Those people from poor families are means tested and awarded a grant based also on the desirability of the subject.

So studying one of the "skill shortage" degrees of Engineering, Maths, Physics etc gets the full monty and then a sliding scale for other courses.

It really isn't remotely difficult as soon as you remove mainstream Labour, LibDem and Tory politicos from the equation

Posted on 23 August 2010 23:13 by libertarian

It's called the Assited Places Scheme. Free education at top independent schools (and hence an opportunity for a great university place) for bright children without the ability to pay. Scrapped by Labour. Bring it back, along with targeted scholarships for low income students to study at the best. Rhodes scholars, Fulbright Scholars. Actually a Carswell Scholar sounds pretty good!

Posted on 24 August 2010 08:13 by Dual Citizen

Make no mistake, this is a government with very left wing leanings and a troublesome right wing to pacify. All its marketing endeavours are to pacify the right wing of the party and the financial markets.

Anyone who truly believes in small government and localism does not make this sort of pronouncement.

For the time being we have to accept a big controlling government that thinks spin will solve everything.after all we have been there before

Posted on 24 August 2010 08:53 by waramess

I've decided that I'm in favour of an extra tax on graduates earnings with one proviso: That the full amount goes to the University from which they graduated. This would provide an extra incentive for the universities to increase their standards, as the better jobs their graduates got, the more income that they would get!

Posted on 24 August 2010 09:56 by English Pensioner

The Universities are just doing what all big corporates do - Use the Govt. to guarantee their profits by way of the tax payer.

Posted on 24 August 2010 10:30 by Rob H

In some respects the coalition is continuing where Labour left off. They cannot understand we need less givernment much less government.

Posted on 24 August 2010 15:30 by Johnny Norfolk

Quotas for student numbers is an absurdity. The number of students taught at universities should be influenced by the resources available, market trends and the needs of individual students. Indeed, this is a reminder, perhaps, of the categorisation of human beings - which seems to be so popular with liberals and socialists of all kinds. Furthermore, university education will continue to lose value - if the number of students is influenced or controlled simply for political reasons.

Posted on 23 October 2010 16:16 by Julian L Hawksworth

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