Manchester blues – or just seeing red? Implementing the HE white paper at MMU

Insiders tell me that a very good white paper was left on the cutting-room floor just days before the one we actually got was published. I cannot judge the truth of that but I do know, from the point of view of one of the largest universities in the UK, that this was a dog’s breakfast that showed a measure of contempt for the dog.

If the policies in the white paper have any sticking power (which is by no means certain), we shall see an increasing fragmentation of the sector and increasing numbers of students actively prevented from enrolling at the university of their choice. MMU had 59,000 UCAS applications last year, from which we admitted nearly 8,000 new undergraduates, making us the most popular university in the UK on that score. So, despite the league tables, we are doing something right. But student number control threatens to cut our intake by 8 per cent per year (compound ... at least until the election looms) to make room for deregulation of AAB-level recruitment, along with the 20,000 places set aside for cheaper providers (universities with lower fees, HE in FE, or new private operators). Is this a market response to student demand? Not from where I am standing.