Category: Education

The government has pledged to impose the 20 per cent tax from January, making the UK the only western country, apart from New Zealand, which taxes education…reports Asian Lite News

Independent schools across Britain reported a drop of more than 10,000 pupils starting in September, with the starkest fall at the start of secondary school, ahead of the introduction of the Labour government’s VAT on tuition.

The government has pledged to impose the 20 per cent tax from January, making the UK the only western country, apart from New Zealand, which taxes education.

Boarding schools saw the highest drop overall, at 2.4 per cent on average, according to new figures from the Independent Schools Council (ISC). For day schools, there was a 1.7 per cent fall. But in Year 7, it was as much as 4.6 per cent.

Schools in Wales have been hit the hardest, followed by those in Yorkshire and the South West. Smaller schools, with fewer than 300 pupils, and those charging the lowest fees saw the greatest drop.

But even medium-sized schools have suffered badly, with one telling The National that it experienced a 10 per cent fall in the number of pupils in Year 7, the first year of secondary school. Several parents have already pulled their children out of Stafford Grammar School, in central England, according to the head teacher, with more having given notice for January, and some planning to see the year out before doing so to minimise the disruption for their children. The school has about 380 pupils.

“In some instances, those who made the very immediate response to do that at the beginning of September said that they didn’t actually have a school place for their child,” said the school’s head teacher, Nick Pietrek. “For those parents who knew immediately that they wouldn’t be able to afford it come January and were already being pushed to the limits, they’d rather pay the fees in lieu and go in the hope they get their child into another school as quickly as possible. But none of those schools were open at the time because it was the summer holiday, so up to the beginning of September, they still had no school for their child. They were literally having to go to the schools directly. The local authority wasn’t able to help.”

Their decision was motivated by the fact that the school informed parents it faced no choice but to pass on the full 20 per cent rise in January when the policy comes into force. “We had already budgeted and we’ve always worked on smaller margins in our fees. Nearly all of our revenue, almost 85 per cent, goes on salaries,” said Pietrek.

“The only way it can be absorbed is by school lowering is fees. And unfortunately, being mid-year, we just can’t do that,” he said. The school hopes to be able to identify some efficiencies to prevent fees rising in September 2025, and possibly even reduce them, he said.

Pietrek said the policy is a repeat of what took place in Greece in 2015, when it briefly imposed a 23 per cent tax on school fees. It was later forced to roll the policy back by the EU and following the closure of smaller schools, with pressure building up on the state sector. A comment was left on an article shared on his LinkedIn account from a Greek resident, who compared the policy’s failure with Labour’s push to introduce the charge. “And I think those same words apply here, really, it feels like a mix of incompetence and political obsession,” he said.

About 600,000 children – or 6 per cent of UK pupils – are currently educated privately. Almost a fifth receive some form of SEND support, and more than a third receive help with their fees through scholarships or bursaries.

The Independent Schools Council, which represents 1,4000 independent schools across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, is calling on the government to modify its plans and delay the implementation of the policy, in particular looking at the impact it will have on small schools, faith schools, and pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

“This data couldn’t be clearer – parents are already removing their children from independent schools as a result of the government’s plans to charge parents VAT. This is just the tip of the iceberg and the knock-on effect on schools is significant, with many small schools already at risk of closure,” said Julie Robinson, chief executive at ISC.

“We want to work with the government to mitigate some of the biggest challenges of this policy, including looking at delaying the implementation of VAT, and seriously reviewing its impact on young people with special educational needs and disabilities.”

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An article in the Mail on Sunday claimed the minister had used some of the money from Lord Waheed Alli to pay for her 40th birthday party…reports Asian Lite News

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has defended receiving a donation of £14,000 from a Labour peer embroiled in a freebies row, saying it was “declared properly and thoroughly”.

An article in the Mail on Sunday claimed the minister had used some of the money from Lord Waheed Alli to pay for her 40th birthday party.

Phillipson insisted the donation paid for two events in a “professional… work context”, with attendees including representatives from the education sector, trade unions and political journalists.

Pushed to explain her own donations from Lord Alli – a television executive who has donated to Labour over the past 20 years – Ms Phillipson told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips: “It was used to fund two events, all of which was declared properly and thoroughly. That’s why that information is in the public domain.

“The first event was ahead of my birthday, so I was turning 40. I thought it was a good opportunity to get people together in a professional context, so it was journalists, trade unionists, education people, MPs and shadow cabinet.

“The second event was an event that I held also again for lobby journalists [and] for people in the education world as part of a reception. It was in a work context.”

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is shown a painting by pupil Aicha, aged 4, whilst taking part in an art activity during a visit to the school-based nursery at Ark Start Oval, East Croydon, in south London. Picture date: Wednesday July 10, 2024. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has come under fire this week for accepting more than £100,000 worth of gifts since becoming party leader in 2019, including tickets to football matches, concerts, and luxury clothes for him and his wife – the latter of which was covered by Lord Alli.

It also emerged Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves had received donations used for purchasing clothes by the long-standing Labour peer.

All three, who declared the donations on their register of interests, have now vowed to no longer accept funds in the future to pay for clothing.

Asked whether they would hand the money back following the backlash, Ms Phillipson said: “Well, if they’ve declared it in line with the rules and they’ve followed [the rules], as very clearly they have, then I see no reason to do so.”

She added: “Look, the reason that we can have this conversation is because colleagues have followed the rules. I’ve followed the rules. I’ve set out in the register of interests what donations were [and] who they were from, and that’s there for the public to see.”

The minister said it was “frustrating” to have to discuss the row as Labour’s conference gets into full swing on Sunday, rather than “the wider agenda”, adding: “Of course, this is a distraction. I’d much rather be talking to you about bigger issues.

“But you know, I’m happy to set out our position very clearly.”

Rayner has also come under scrutiny this weekend after The Times reported she had not declared taking a friend on a personal holiday to New York funded by Lord Alli last Christmas.

The deputy prime minister – who delivered the opening speech of party conference on Sunday – declared her own use of the peer’s apartment on her register of interests, but failed to report that Sam Tarry, then the Ilford South MP, stayed in the same accommodation.

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Fees for UK students in England and Wales are capped at £9,250, while in Scotland tuition is free for the majority of Scottish students but £9,250 for other UK students….reports Asian Lite News

Universities have called for an increase in student tuition fees and government funding to fill a financial hole, according to reports. Universities UK, which represents 141 institutions, have put forward proposals to raise funds for their members, including fee increases, in the face of budget deficits, BBC Radio 4’s Today programme said.

Fees for UK students in England and Wales are capped at £9,250, while in Scotland tuition is free for the majority of Scottish students but £9,250 for other UK students.

According to House of Commons statistics, the average student loan debt in England is about £45,600 for those who started their course in 2022-23, and £43,700 for those who started in 2023-24. This is higher than the average student loan debt in Wales, which is £35,780.

The proposals seen by the BBC suggest that funding for each student needs to reach £12,000-£13,000 – but the group has said this would not necessarily mean fees increasing to this amount, which would be a rise of up to 40%.

The principal of Universities UK, Prof Dame Sally Mapstone, told the Today programme the universities were looking for a “reset” with the government on student tuition fees and maintenance loans.

She said: “What we’re looking for from the new government is the opportunity for a reset, and the opportunity to look right across the funding arrangements for fees and with students. The major problem with university finance is that for the past eight to nine years, direct government grants and fees haven’t kept up with the cost of teaching and with inflation, so more and more institutions are facing a budget deficit overall. We think that there needs to be a good dialogue with government in partnership about the relationship between the direct teaching grant that government can provide and the fees that students pay. We are alert to the fact, of course, that when you say fees should go up, people are alarmed at the consequences for students, which is why we also think that it’s very important that the support that students get in terms of maintenance loans and grants also be looked at.”

Put to her that the proposals would mean students borrowing more and accumulating greater debt, Mapstone, the vice-chancellor of the University of St Andrews, said: “It undoubtedly is the case that if you learn more, you earn more, and you have to look at the benefit of university education across a lifetime.

“There is very good evidence that if you go to university in your 20s and in your 30s, you will be earning more than if you didn’t. Although the £12,000 to £13,000 figure is very much within our proposals, we are not saying that fees should go up to that.”

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These figures cover short and long-term visas, visa extensions, and changes, as well as settlement and citizenship grants for those already residing in the UK….reports Asian Lite News

The UK government recently released its latest immigration data for the year ending June 2024, showing a total of 1.16 million visas granted for work, study, and family reasons, including dependents. The report revealed sharp decreases across key visa categories, with work visas for main applicants down by 11% and study visas for foreign students dropping by 13% compared to the previous year.

These figures cover short and long-term visas, visa extensions, and changes, as well as settlement and citizenship grants for those already residing in the UK.

There were 286,382 visas granted to main applicants across all work categories in the year ending June 2024. This marked an 11% drop compared to the previous year but was still more than double the figure from 2019.

One notable decrease came from ‘Health and Care Worker’ visas, with 89,095 issued to main applicants. This represents a 26% drop compared to the previous year, with the period from April to June 2024 showing an 81% fall compared to the same quarter in 2023.

While the ‘Skilled Worker’ category has more than doubled since 2021, it saw a slight drop of 3% in the most recent year, with 88,653 visas granted to main applicants.

Dependants of workers were also a large group, with 260,392 visas granted in the year ending June 2024. Health and care worker dependants accounted for 69% of these. Meanwhile, the number of ‘Temporary Worker’ visas stood at 77,419, including 34,332 for seasonal workers and 24,091 issued under the Youth Mobility Scheme.

Foreign students were granted 432,225 sponsored study visas in the year ending June 2024, which was 13% fewer than the previous year but still 61% higher than 2019. Two-thirds (65%) of these were for master’s level courses.

A sharp drop was seen in the issuance of visas to dependants of students. Between January and June 2024, only 11,675 visas were issued to student dependants, a reduction of 81% compared to the same period in 2023. Meanwhile, main applicants saw a 23% fall in the same time frame.

There was a notable increase in family-related visa applications, with 98,906 submitted in the year ending June 2024, representing a 40% jump from the previous year.

People arriving in the UK through family visa routes are more likely to settle in the country long-term compared to those coming for work or study. According to the 2023 Migrant Journey report, 62% of those who entered the UK on family routes since 2007 had been granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR) within five years, and this figure rose to 83% after 10 years. By contrast, only 21% of work visa holders and 7% of student visa holders obtained ILR after a decade.

In terms of settlement, 137,020 people were granted settlement in the UK in the year ending June 2024. This is a 17% rise from the previous year, where 117,023 received settlement status.

British citizenship was granted to nearly a quarter of a million people (246,488) during the same period, an increase of 37% compared to the year ending June 2023, when 180,243 people were granted citizenship. In the year ending June 2024, 93,342 people were offered a safe and legal (humanitarian) route to come to, or remain in, the UK.

There were 39% fewer visas granted on a safe and legal (humanitarian) routes in the year ending June 2024 when compared to the previous year, largely due to the reduction in the use of Ukraine Scheme Visas and Extensions.

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The total income of the British higher education sector in 2022-23 was just over £50 billion ($66 billion), most of it from tuition fees and grants…reports Asian Lite News

Restrictions on visas for international students is causing financial hardship for UK universities, they said on Thursday, calling for a hike in domestic tuition fees to offset yawning deficits.

The president of Universities UK (UUK), which represents 141 British higher education institutions, said all its universities were “feeling the crunch” since the curbs came in last year.

“There is now a clear choice: we can allow our distinguished, globally competitive higher education system to slide into decline or we can act together,” said Sally Mapstone.

The total income of the British higher education sector in 2022-23 was just over £50 billion ($66 billion), most of it from tuition fees and grants, according to a House of Commons research paper.

Typically, international students pay more in tuition fees than their domestic counterparts and have become a lucrative source of income for many institutions.

But the previous government under Conservative ex-prime minister Rishi Sunak slapped restrictions on overseas student visas, banning many from bringing their families, as part of a crackdown on record levels of immigration.

In the first four months of 2024, there were 30,000 fewer applications from overseas than in the same period in 2023, according to official statistics.

Universities have been warning for months about the effect on their finances, with fears shortfalls could see them slash courses and force some to the wall.

Mapstone told a UUK conference in Reading, west of London, that the current deficit in the sector was £1.7 billion for teaching and £5 billion for research.

She urged “investment and support” from the government to maintain world-class teaching and research.

Tuition fees paid by domestic students rose from £9,000 to £9,250 a year in 2017 but have been frozen since then, despite inflation.

The head of King’s College London, Shitij Kapur, said fees should now be between £12,000 and £13,000.

In a video broadcast at the UUK conference, the new Labour government’s Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson acknowledged that universities were facing “complex problems.”

“I can’t promise painless or immediate resolutions, but I do promise that these issues will get the attention and the commitment they deserve,” she said.

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Academicians from the UK have criticized the decision of King’s College, which had been ranked 6th in the UK and 38th in the world by Times Higher Education recently….reports Asian Lite News

A group of academicians and intellectuals in the United Kingdom have urged universities to be more open about donation sources after a report revealed that a Hong Kong-based donor has been funding a prominent China studies institute run under King’s College in London.

Reportedly, the non-profit research organization UK-China Transparency, focusing on ties between the countries, in July released a report unearthing that 99.9 per cent of the donations totalling more than 10 million pounds or USD 13.2 million at the King’s Lau China Institute at the King’s College were donated by Lau Ming-wai, son of Hong Kong tycoon Joseph Lau and chair of property investor Chinese Estates Holdings.

This Hong Kong-listed company was once a major shareholder in Evergrande, a major business entity in China involved in real estate.

King’s College, however, has refused to respond to Freedom of Information requests raised by UK-China Transparency seeking information about the donations received by Britain’s largest China research centre. Notably, UK law permits anyone to seek information held by public bodies in the country.

Academicians from the UK have criticized the decision of King’s College, which had been ranked 6th in the UK and 38th in the world by Times Higher Education recently.

Andrew Chubb, a senior lecturer in Chinese politics and international relations at Lancaster University in the UK, said, “King’s decision was corrosive as far as trust in the institutional code”.

Sam Dunning, the director of UK-China Transparency, expressed his concerns on the matter, stating, “The point is the public should know. It’s in the public interest for King’s to be transparent about whether there was any influence by the donor over the institute’s remit”.

Notably, Beijing has been internationally accused of committing human rights abuses against Uyghurs in East Turkistan, a southwestern region of China. Additionally, the US government has also accused the Chinese government of genocide.

One of the factors Dunning mentioned about China’s influence on academic work, is the UK’s reliance on international students to fund British universities.

Around 40 per cent of such international students were in deficit this year. Currently, Chinese students make up the biggest proportion of overseas students in UK universities. A local student pays just a mere 9,250 pounds per year as tuition fees, instead, an international student sometimes pays around 38,000 pounds for education in the country.

“Many of our universities would face going bust in a matter of years without Chinese student fees. That is a systematic incentive for them (universities) not to promote Chinese studies academics who are going to upset Beijing,” said Dunning.

Additionally, over 120 academics, politicians, and campaigners had also signed an open letter in April coordinated by media platform openDemocracy, which expressed concerns over opaque university funding in the UK and the influence of major donors, according to Nikkei Asia.

Previously, a study published by openDemocracy found that since 2017, over 281 million pounds have been anonymously donated to top British universities. The University of Oxford accepted 106 million pounds as donations by these anonymous donors.

“There’s no requirement to disclose names when challenged. It’s an entirely non-transparent situation in the UK,” explained John Heathershaw, professor of international relations at the University of Exeter. (ANI)