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PROFESSOR JOHN CLARKE SPEAKS OUT IN FAVOUR OF HIGHER TUITION FEES

Thursday 1 October 2009

Professor John Clarke spoke out in favour of higher tuition fees alongside radical reforms in universities during an appearance on BBC News 24 on 21 September. Professor Clarke believes that fees are a good thing for two reasons; if you pay more for things you value them more (higher fees make students more hard working) and if you pay fees, you become a customer. At the moment it is not students who are the customers, it is the state. Higher fees would actually make for better universities.

He recommends that universities learn from the 2-year Buckingham model where living expenses are lower because teaching takes place over 4 terms per year with no long breaks. Oxford teaches over just 24 weeks per year and other universities are not much longer. Universities in general do not use facilities and resources as intensely as they should do and a longer academic year would be a much better use of public resources. See below:

Report by the Web Team