" (Stevens, 2006) While the pay of education staff has been lowered, tuition fees have been raised and yet public spending."..on higher education in the UK is one of the lowest in the industrialized world." (Stevens, 2006) Currently Britain is stated to spend only 1.1% of its national income on higher education, compared with the EU average of 1.2%." (Stevens, 2006; paraphrased) the U.S. spends 2.6% of its national income on higher education according to Stevens. The Labour and Conservative parties in Britain are conspiring to bring about an increase of private funding for higher education "but only to encourage the social stratification that has taken place." (Stevens, 2006) the proposal is for the establishment of a system in which a "select group of 'world class' universities would be established, with the majority of universities left to compete amongst themselves for ever dwindling public funding." (Stevens, 2006) Oxford and Cambridge Universities will not be required to place caps on tuition fees and will thereby be enabled to charge tens of thousands of pounds, which will further restrict attendance at this universities to "a wealthy and privileged elite." (Stevens, 2006) Stevens states that recently at Oxford, proposals were made focused on structural changes, which would "allow outside members into the university's governance structures and ending its centuries-old policy of self-rule. The plans from Vice-Chancellor John Hood were presented as a move to modernise the structures of the university and to allow accountability and transparency. In fact, the plan is for Oxford to become accountable to big business and to be financially "incentivised" to perform. Hood called for the creation of a board of directors with a majority of externally appointed members to approve the budget and oversee the running of the university. Oxford faces a budget deficit of £8 million this year and opponents of the Hood plans correctly fear that one of the first priorities of such a board of directors would be to demand an increase in its fees to at least £10,000 a year. Commenting on the debate on Hood's proposals, the Times said, "At times it sounded like a boardroom meeting, with references repeatedly made to the institution's £1.2 billion value, and the vital role played by effective management structures." (2006) These proposals were provided support by government body that is responsible for appropriation of funding for universities specifically the Higher Education Funding Council for England however "they were rejected by a vote of the universities dons by 730 to 456 and in a subsequent postal ballot." (Stevens, 2006) Stevens relates that there is a resulting devastation in the impact that the "stranglehold of corporations over higher education" hold upon the university departments all across the UK with one example being the closing of the "world-renowned physics department at Reading University and these types of attacks are expected to "escalate as the government and the opposition vie with each other to implement wide-ranging attacks on the right to tertiary education." (2006) the work of Boris Johnson entitled: "Aspire Ever Higher: University Policy for the 21st Century" states that state control over higher education must end as "Universities are not part of the public sector and should be set free to run their own affairs, whether this means admitting students or teaching courses. The government should acknowledge that 'hierarchies of excellence' must be allowed to flourish." (Johnson, 2006) Johnson additionally states: "I foresee a 20-year period of psychological reconditioning in the way we think about universities and their funding. We also need to think more creatively about tax breaks and how to build up alumni donations and endowments." (Johnson, 2006; as cited in Stevens, 2006) Chancellor Gordon Brown has stated the necessity to search for alternative funding sources both of a public and private nature. Due to the decline in public funding of education the universities are adding a large number of foreign students in the hopes to balance the deficit in funding. Stevens states that the increase in foreign students is precisely the reason for the lifting of tuition caps and reports a 2004 study conducted by the British Council and Universities UK that states findings that Britain could earn "£13 billion a year from international students in higher education by 2020, in addition to the £3 billion they currently contribute to the economy. Another government-funded study by Geraint Johnson, Professor of Economics at Lancaster University, revealed that the economy earned £11 billion annually from "exports" of tuition for foreign students, training, examinations, publishing and educational programming: "That places...
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