Britain falls behind Poland and Slovakia in university tables

**Midas** · 08-09-2010, 09:04 AM

The UK has lost its edge as a world leader in providing higher education, one of the most authoritative international studies has revealed.

It has plummeted from fourth place to 15th in less than a decade in the percentage of graduates it produces – being overtaken by countries such as Poland and Portugal in the process.

The study's findings prompted dire warnings from lecturers and vice-chancellors' representatives, who said the UK faced relegation from the top league from which it would struggle to recover. The report, by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), comes just before a major government review of university finance by the former BP boss Lord Browne and cuts in higher education funding of up to 35 per cent.

The review is said to be moving towards introducing more of a university marketplace through higher fees for students – which would mean lifting the current cap of £3,225 to at least £7,000. Research evidence shows that the majority of students – about two-thirds – would be deterred from going to university if fees reached that level.

Andreas Schleicher, of the OECD's indicators and analysis division, said: "Fewer people with qualifications will mean a less successful economy. Cutting education is going to cut the tax returns of the future. For many years the UK was very much at the forefront [of higher education provision]. But now you do not see that competitive advantage."

The report revealed that the UK's nosedive was not a result of it producing fewer graduates – rather that other countries had expanded their higher education provision at a faster rate. Figures showed the UK was investing less of its Gross Domestic Product in higher education – 1.3 per cent – than the OECD average of 1.5 per cent.

The full story available from here : Britain falls behind Poland and Slovakia in university tables - Education News, Education - The Independent

A sad indictment of the way that the Labour government in particular have dealt with education in this country, although I'm alarmed at the way the present coalition government seems to be following in a similar pattern, although for very different reasons. Education is the one biggest single thing that's going to help improve this country in the future, both socially and economically, and although there's been gross overspending, and misdirected spending, within it in the past, across the board cuts are certainly not the answer; we need more and better education, not less!

**Streetwalker** · 08-09-2010, 09:32 AM

The labour government got it wrong with their plan to give university places to all.The coalition is doing nothing to redress the problem.Universities need to be for our elite students not a place that has become little more than the upper.upper 6th.

**Midas** · 08-09-2010, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by Streetwalker

The labour government got it wrong with their plan to give university places to all.The coalition is doing nothing to redress the problem.Universities need to be for our elite students not a place that has become little more than the upper.upper 6th.

I totally agree, and it's not just a funding issue as far as I can see. We need a far more fundamental change of the status of universities back to where it was before all the polytechnics and colleges of further education jumped in on the act and started offering degrees in pretty much anything you can think of. That would not only increase the number, and hopefully standard, of 'proper' degrees around, but it would also enable the former polytechnics to concentrate on the type of vocational studies that commerce and industry desperately need.

**Kiwi 1691** · 08-09-2010, 11:47 AM

Are you really surprised? Us westerners are getting lazy.

Look at your average westerner and your average immigrant from a developing country. Perfect example would be a guy I know from China, he completed his uni study a couple of years ago, and he still studies to early in the morning, most people I see from in this case continental Asia work a lot harder than people born in NZ, AUS, Europe, USA etc.

Oh, and govts around the world seem (as previously mentioned) are making unjustified cuts in education spending.

**AMGINGLES** · 08-09-2010, 12:27 PM

Unfortunatly under the conservatives we are seeing a return to conservative educational funding , designed to "conserve" the position of the elites in society with the exception of a few immigrants from foreign "good" families that makes it appear that ethnic minoritys are getting a fair deal. It is up to the controlling government to control the language what is an ethnic minority person? , is it someone from a rich saudi oil family? What is a white middle class person? Is it someone , like david cameron who comes from a family that is really well off but not super rich. This is where people in Britain are loosing out , the language manipulation. Look at the way they calculate the net immigration by minusing the number of brits jumping ship from the number of foreign immigrants coming in and presenting it as the number of immigrants that entered the country. This is media manipulation because they know joey builder doesn't know they calculate and present things this way , so he thinks there was only 200,000 new immigrants last year ( a small city) but there was actually 500,000 the population of liverpool , with 300,000 brits jumping ship.

If we allow them to use lawyer speak and hide real statistics we are the fools.

**flash** · 08-09-2010, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by AMGINGLES

Unfortunatly under the conservatives we are seeing a return to conservative educational funding ,

Isn't conservative educational funding really only spending money on what you can afford? What is wrong with that approach?

Since your country has tremendous debt don't you think it is prudent to restrict the growth of public spending? Who are you going to borrow the money from in order to keep up with the Poles? What interest rate are you going to give the Chinese to buy your educational bonds? How about raising taxes? How much additional taxes are you willing to pay in order to move up from 15th place to 14th? Maybe you are one of these Socialists that don’t ever want to pay additional taxes but you want somebody else to pay for it.

If your think education is such a high priority and your country is spending a lot more money than it takes in then what existing problem would you like to see cutback and the money transferred to education? In other words what other special interest group are you willing to piss off in order to give money to your special interest group? How about NHS? It is a bloated government program that employees the third highest number of public employees in the world and all you get for it is poor cancer survival rates.

**AMGINGLES** · 09-09-2010, 09:45 AM

I understand what you are saying flash , but again we have to look at why we are in so much debt and identify what debt is legitimate and what like some of the dodgy private finance initiatives should be subject to corruption investigations. Using PFIs as an example the questions should be asked why did the labour government not issue much cheaper building bonds rather than enter into PFIs clearly against the public interest. The British government deliberatly racked up this debt to insider banks and corrupt partners in foreign countries , this is not just terrible mismanagement it is criminal swindling. They brought the immigrants here to help insiders in industry , they sent us to war to help insiders in the oil and arms industry. The labour government was corrupt and the conservatives have been left with sod all to work with while blair swans about with his books and swiss bank accounts full of goldman sachs money.sick.

As for the poor cancer rates........... flouride....aspartame etc , poor diet , poor levels of excercise , poor attitude to health. As you americans say unless our teeth are hangin out of our heads we won't go to the dentist.

**flash** · 09-09-2010, 02:16 PM

Originally Posted by AMGINGLES

I understand what you are saying flash , but again we have to look at why we are in so much debt and identify what debt is legitimate and what like some of the dodgy private finance initiatives should be subject to corruption investigations. Using PFIs as an example the questions should be asked why did the labour government not issue much cheaper building bonds rather than enter into PFIs clearly against the public interest. The British government deliberatly racked up this debt to insider banks and corrupt partners in foreign countries , this is not just terrible mismanagement it is criminal swindling. They brought the immigrants here to help insiders in industry , they sent us to war to help insiders in the oil and arms industry. The labour government was corrupt and the conservatives have been left with sod all to work with while blair swans about with his books and swiss bank accounts full of goldman sachs money.sick.

As for the poor cancer rates........... flouride....aspartame etc , poor diet , poor levels of excercise , poor attitude to health. As you americans say unless our teeth are hangin out of our heads we won't go to the dentist.

You are in debt because you spend more money than you take in.

It is a socialist’s entitlement mentality that causes your government to spend a lot of money.

You can blame it on “the banks” or whoever you want but it is the fault of the people that elect government officials that spend public funds right and left.

It is really simple; big government spending is the reason you are in debt.

You can get out of debt by spending less money. You can also do priority based budgeting like most businesses do, which is to prioritize your spending and don’t buy things you can't afford. You could also have lower taxes by spending less money. Isn’t it better for you to make the decisions on spending the money you earn rather than turn it over to some stupid government official to spend for you?

My government is almost as bad so I don’t want to get on a high horse here but the government that governs the least governs the best. Your near bankrupt situation and poor performing government services are the result of an out of control government.

We have the same environmntal health risks as you do but have much higher cancer survial rates. The reason is that our mostly private health care industry is better than your government funded one..