Email
George Osborne's new year speech, in which he reaffirmed aspirations to cut the state further, have some important implications for education providers and for universities in particular. Of course there are questions about the scale, focus and timetable of the chancellor's aspirations, with much speculation about the impact not only on the welfare budget but also on the government departments where spending is not protected under Conservative plans.
Unlike health and schools education which are both protected, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – and with it higher education – falls into this unprotected category. However, in his autumn statement, George Osborne pledged to fund an unlimited expansion in the number of people entering higher education. Considering the decline in the number of 18-year-olds in the population and the failure of the 2012 fees system to incentivise the mature student market, it may prove to be a shrewd move. The chancellor is unlikely to lose his shirt on the 2015-16 race to recruit additional students in a market free-for-all unless of course private providers remain outside of the regulatory framework.
But universities do not exist in a vacuum. They work with businesses and employers across the piece and enhance their offer to students by building in employability skills and the opportunity to undertake professional placements. With its focus on student numbers, regulation and research, the higher education sector is missing a trick in not flagging up the risks of simplistic arguments about the value of creating jobs in the private rather than the public sector.
In fact, public services have been significantly improved and enhanced by graduate supply, but in its turn the public sector has also been a valuable source of professional placements for students. This is particularly the case for local government. Some of these placements have been linked with specific professions: social work is a fine example. An emerging challenge for universities will not only be the increasing reluctance of local councils to offer placements, but the sheer scale and size of the cuts that they are being required to make to services.
Core funding reductions across local councils are running at an average of 33% with a further 10% reduction required next year. With this in mind, senior university staff have raised concerns about the risk that opportunities for students and graduates to gain public sector work experience will be lost, and that this will impact on eventual employment prospects.
Of course, universities remain engaged in productive partnerships with councils, Local Enterprise Partnerships and other local education and health providers. They are also engaged in supporting local government to rise to the challenge of reconfiguring services, but this should not detract from the risk that the private sector will not step in to offer the professional placements, training and employment opportunities that local government and the public sector have previously provided.
For those who advocate a smaller role for the state, the diminishing role envisaged for local councils cannot come a moment too soon. The trouble with this approach is that too often in the past private sector contractors have had little interest in the training and professional career development of staff. The concern has to be that even if private sector contractors change their tune, the money in the kitty will be insufficient to support the placement opportunities that have been of mutual benefit to students interested in careers in what has been the not-for-profit sector.
Pam Tatlow is chief executive of the university think-tank million+ – follow it on Twitter @million_plus
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Looking for your next university role? Browse Guardian jobs for hundreds of the latest academic, administrative and research posts
;