Education

Thinktank advocates ‘national’ and ‘local’ university divide

From Times Higher Education: “English higher education institutions should be split into ‘national’ and ‘local’ universities to give them a ‘clearly defined purpose’, a thinktank claims. The report from the EDSK education and skills thinktank complains that since the tripling of the tuition fee cap in 2012 universities have too often ‘focused on expanding the most lucrative courses rather than demonstrating a wider commitment to their community or society, yet there is no mechanism or framework that encourages them to do otherwise’. It complains that this has ‘contributed to a dearth of higher-level technical courses in this country, leaving students and employers with a set of largely homogenous institutions that are almost indistinguishable in what they offer’ ”.

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