The Ministry of Education is planning to cap off higher education enrollees by taking away low-income courses on the menu.
Capping of student enrollment to accommodate budget cut
Social mobility is at risk as the government plans to limit student enrollment amid the impending increase in numbers of upcoming higher education students. More than 50 percent of young students are now proceeding into higher education, and with the Treasury Department having issues in controlling the rapid increase in student debt accumulation, there is no other simpler way than to cut off access to low-income courses.
At Exeter University, a professor of Social mobility, Lee Elliot Major has predicted that this move by the government will bring an end to Social mobility and expansion of education access. He believes that this will trigger a clash of classes, where the poor will eventually be ruled out of the scene.
The Ministry of Education in compliance with the Treasury Department is in troubled waters as the public deficit rose to a record high after accounts of student debts for the past decade or so are left unsettled. On the record, only a bit over 50 percent of the total value of student loans has yet to be paid and is accounted for as government expenditure.
Low-income courses might be ruled out
According to the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, Nick Hillman:
I am opposing the notion of limiting the number of students to be enrolled, there is an alternative way to this which is taking away funding for low-income courses, but I am weighing it at the least option possible.
Ironically, most of the graduates under low-income courses are really not that interested in making huge money out of their professions. Most of them are willing to work in economically struggling regions in order to extend help in needy areas. Courses related to arts and humanities are most likely to be affected by the plan.
Academics fear that if low-income courses are less funded, fewer students will aspire to take up the course, and in return, will lessen the workforce willing to extend help in rural communities.
In a statement from the Ministry of Education:
We want students with potential to be granted access to high-quality education and we do not want courses with low-quality teaching to soil the reputation of our world-class universities. We rest the decision to thee Office for Students in order to serve the interest of the majority.
