Nottingham University Campaign for Higher Education

We, the undersigned students and staff at the University of Nottingham have no confidence in the policies of the Minister for Science and Higher Education, David Willetts. We call on the government to pause its publication of the White Paper to allow for proper consultation and public debate on its proposed reforms, which have the potential to inflict great and irreversible damage to Higher Education in the UK.

We also strongly support the similar motion of no confidence proposed by the Oxford University Campaign for Higher Education, and urge students and academics across the country to support it as well, by signing the online petition at noconfidence.org.uk.

Why No Confidence?

1) The Governments policy making has been financially chaotic, unsustainable and incompetent. The Treasury budgeted for an average fee of 7500, but now more than two-thirds of Universities want to charge 9000 for some or all courses.

2) The 80\% cut to the HEFCE Teaching grant will leave Universities systematically underfunded even with higher fees.

3) The academic profession in the UK has never been less attractive. The debts incurred to go through both undergraduate and postgraduate study could be as high as 87,000. Money for research is also being cut in real terms and what remains is being focused on the Governments short-term agenda.

4) The introduction of the principles of a competitive market raises the danger of a race to the bottom in academic standards, especially if judgement criteria include only student satisfaction and projected graduate earning power. We also believe that the recent tendency to focus only on the instrumental value of higher education poses a threat to the academic ethos and its associated standards.

5) The licensing of for-profit institutions to award degrees and the advocacy of overseas franchising by existing Universities are a threat to the reputation of the UK University system as a whole.

6) There has been a lack of communication with key actors in the sector on these issues.