I am an unpaid fellow of an Oxford College and a former part time Professor at another University. I come  to the debate on students from a position of sympathy, wishing to see a strong UK independent university sector. I am pleased we host several of the world’s best universities.
I am no supporter of the model which creates a large number of places for overseas students which leads to a major expansion of students staying here after graduating taking low skill jobs and seeking to convert their degree course into a permit to live and work in the UK  thereafter. Nor do I think it a good idea to encourage a lot of older postgraduate students to  come with their families adding to the pressures on public services and housing. It is a thoroughly bad idea to let good postgraduate students from authoritarian and hostile countries get places  in cutting edge research that could be useful for weapons manufacture, electronic  surveillance, new materials, and other dangerous technologies as they will  return to their homes to apply what they have learned in ways which might harm others.
The government is taking action to restrict university action in each of these three categories. Selling courses to overseas students mainly sells to the rich from abroad as these courses are expensive. Charities and the overseas aid budget can provide money for low and no income  students from poor countries to come  to gain necessary skills and to return to apply them to help their own  country.
UK universities at their best are hosts to the best of world academic talent capable of world class research. Inviting in some overseas students to pay  high fees helps with their finances. If they invite in too many without ensuring they return home  after their course they add to housing and public service stress. Some of these universities imply there is no other way of covering costs other than a big rise in foreign students. They need to develop other ways of paying for university. Too many foreign students changes the ethos  and culture of the institution and limits places for UK students where we want a better educated and skilled workforce.
The Endowment model of leading US and  UK universities is a good one. Many ex alumni who succeed are happy to offer money during their lives and or on death to build endowment funds . These provide an excellent addition to student fees. There can be profits from spin out investments from university research. There is also plenty of scope given the many weeks each year when universities do not teach students to use their buildings and personnel to earn conference and adult training money.When I was years ago a full time academic I taught at summer schools as well,
January 21, 2024
It’s only right that universities should concentrate on foreign students, after all these will be no good will paid jobs for the locals.
Net zero exposed, probably 6000 jobs in all affected within 9 months at Port Talbot and a new Arc furnace powered by fairy dust MAY get built in 5 years.
Uproar in the press Guardian excited.
Now we know the future writ large.
January 21, 2024
Are we witnessing ( all bogus green claims aside) the final sell -off of this country?
I think that we are seeing just that.
Obviously we know it has been going on for years.
But Good God in Heaven âŠno steel! ( And yet govt. is warmongering! Do they knit planes and aircraft carriers out of nettles and run them on ant blood now?)
No coal, no steel. Yet others have them.
Our dear leaders have sold our industrial heart.
And who is pocketing the dosh?
January 21, 2024
No Everhopeful
What this government does is get the Navies close support ships built in Spain and the Type 31 destroyers built in Poland
All for the Nirvana of nett zero.
January 21, 2024
The Tory’s exporting our manufacturing on the ridiculous belief it lowers our bogy gas, CO2, which in turn is a trace gas at 0.04% of the atmosphere that feeds all plants on Earth, without which we would all die! Them importing the same goods back with more CO2. MADNESS.
Then the Tory’s want to educate the world and his wife to beat us in a competitive world or use it as a back door way to flood the Country with more immigration. How does any of this help Joe and Jill English tax payer. It doesn’t. Just the pay of the lefty pro migrant fat cat University Don types.
We’ve had enough of the useless Tory’s. Part of the problem, not solution. Reform.
January 21, 2024
Ah OK
Thanks!
Not good to depend on buying in stuff though?
January 21, 2024
If your party provide welfare and accommodation to student families to increase its mass immigration policy, what do you expect? Do they pay if they return home or debt written off because govt does not have the capacity to chase up? Please tell us.
Your party and govt provided free university tuition to EU students at some of our top universities while giving English students a lifetime of debt. Why did your party provide our competitors free university education or take up places our English students could have taken? How about NHS treatment for these people? Do they add to waiting lists or is it just doctor strikes as Snake falsely claims? Willetts reply to me was pathetic, Lord King totally clueless at hustings. Does your party still provide free tuition to EU students in Scotland?
Why has Sunak given France ÂŁ500 million of taxpayers cash knowing he was going to find them paid work, allow to go back home for Christmas and never deport?
January 21, 2024
Hope, arenât International students billed direct from the University and if they fail to get the money in the Universities lose it?
Iâm not talking about the existing EU students being taught in UK universities with student loans and maintenance loans provided by UK student finance (I never understood why this happened and why their own countries werenât billed quid pro quo like Turing?)
January 21, 2024
Scottish students did not pay tuition fees so EU students did not even though all EU matters are decided by Westminster.
To follow the logic if Scotland is a host nation and separate from UK/England for this purpose then English students too should not pay. Alternatively, if UK is one country and host nation then EU students should pay.
January 22, 2024
I agree; I have experience educating a child in Scotland and loaning English-level tuition fees.
January 21, 2024
Not just Scotland, in fact anywhere except England. My son, a Junior Doctor has come out of Cambridge with a debt of ÂŁ80K. His Welsh girlfriend studying alongside him has only a fraction of that debt. John and 550 MPs squatting in English constituencies watch this blatant discrimination and say nothing. If it were the other way around, there would be rioting in the streets.
January 21, 2024
JB,
Seem to recall it was worse than that English students required to obtain grades based on offer at AS stage, Scottish and US students did not!
Govt. would/will claim Education is a devolved matter in your case. However, it fails when EU students are concerned because Westminster Govt deals with all EU matters not devolved nations. Therefore devolved nations have no right to negotiate separately with foreign nations/bodies.
January 21, 2024
JR,
You, IDS and JRM are in Daily Mail today where it claims you persuaded rebels not to vote against Sunakâs Rwanda bill. You told us it was untrue the other day. Have a read and let us know your views.
Reply I stand by my previous statement
January 21, 2024
About the reply: thereâs really a problem with people unable to understand what Sir John had clearly said. He had voted with the about 60 people on all the various amendments, but abstained on the final vote.
That can easily be checked on members.parliament.uk under his name, looking at âSafety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigrationâ bill, with the list of all the amendments.
And that is a much better source of accurate information than the Daily Mail.
Reply I have now read the Mail story. I can guess their source and see they accurately reported his view. At least four different approaches to the bill were discussed, so it was more complex than the report. As the record shows I did not vote for the Bill and did vote for the amendments. Mr Duncan Smith and Mr Rees Mogg voted for the bill. The Bill is designed to help stop the small boats, an aim I support. It is a strengthening of the current law but not as strong as it could have been with the amendments.
January 21, 2024
Hef,
I can read how MPs voted. That does not show why they voted or who they influenced to vote in a certain way.
No matter the paper, author Dan Hodges, would know the rules and laws about what he could write. I suspect the author would be more converse with the law than you or you would not have looked down your nose to write utter superior tosh.
January 21, 2024
@Everhopeful – if there was honesty in this Conservative Government, there isn’t. Any thought of NetZero would only be us keeping in step with all our major competitors. The exporting of our stategic industries has been paramount.
Take the famous UKAUS deal, the UK no longer makes the specialty steel for the boats so imports it from France, all the electronics navigation , surveillance equipment is supplied to our naval dockyards courtesy of the French Government. It didn’t upset Macron it rewarded the French State
if there was honesty in this Conservative Government, there isn’t. they would admit their purpose in office is to undermine the UK so as to ensure it cant be self-reliant, resilient, therefore safe and secure. Instead always be beholden to the whims and gratitude of the unaccountable therefore not responsible to the UK
January 21, 2024
+++
Agree 100%
January 21, 2024
Ian
I do not think they (the Government) are bright enough to even understand the full ramifications of their policies, let alone the inevitable unintended consequences of such.
Meanwhile they are looking at reducing the strength of the army from 80,000 to 70,000, not enough to even fill Wembley stadium, and remember not all soldiers fight, some are administration, drivers, mechanics, doctors, nurses etc etc.
I wonder who chooses their advisors ?
January 21, 2024
@Berkshire Alan – I had to smile in the last week when it was announced the Government would be sending 20,000 army personnel on a big NATO exercise. Still that means there is less of the to play at being tourists clowns in London while they are away. Just hope the UK doesn’t suffer floods as it is always the non- exsistant army that is called on.
January 21, 2024
Shapps says Britons should join the army!! Who would want to risk their life for the current dishonest fools in cabinet/govt!
Just imagine Libya Cameron would be shouting from his arm chair! Miliband stopped his mad march into Syria!! No, ask the millions from mass immigration to stand on the front line to uphold our values and culture that they love so much to come here!
January 21, 2024
@Hope â like a lot of things the UK Armed forces are lost in the discrimination hypocrisy of Diversity, Inclusion and Equality (DIE for short). The Conservative Government taxes me and you for the promotion of Discrimination so doesnât have any other money for our armed services.
They have to learn how to be active in discriminating, before how to march in step. Its no longer is about being good or great at a job, you first have to learn how to discriminate.
January 21, 2024
The expansion of our universities has caused untold damage to our society and nation. What’s to be done?
First, the government should drop any “aspiration” that all children get a degree. That should reduce demand, especially in useless subjects. Secondly it should push for most professions and the civil service (plus police, army…all government positions) to go back to offering non-degree entry via apprenticeships and/or professional exams, so we get more on-the-job learners.
As for foreign students, well the government just has to stop dependents being allowed to come and not allow students to work here ( unless it is a placement during their course).
If universities subsequently contract and lay off tutors, then great. In their current form they are not an asset to our nation. Like NHS-worship, university -worship is misplaced.
January 21, 2024
Increased number of students make unemployment figures look better. There are no longer many jobs available for fifteen or sixteen year olds anyway. Longer years spent studying means higher academic qualifications are now demanded for many roles.
Further education is similar to quangos in that it offers a lot of highly paid roles that can be used as a form of patronage.
Increased student numbers have encouraged universities to over-expand and many are now in financial difficulty.
January 21, 2024
Apprenticeships Apprenticeships Apprenticeships !
Why do we find it hard to find plumbers, plasterers, electricians, roofers, painter decorators?
And when you do they are foreign.
January 21, 2024
UK tradesman have pay indemnity insurance, professional insurance, van insurance, tools insurance, MOT, vehicle tax, national insurance, probably for a lock-up/garage rent, a decent salary providing for your family and a UK qualification âŠ.against a foreign plumber who doesnât have any costs nor qualification âŠour UK tradesman are undercut at every stage starting with their first qualification
January 21, 2024
@Mickey Taking – stop making sense that the last thing this Conservative Government wants to hear
January 21, 2024
MT
No technical colleges left to teach the correct skills, used to be 4 days on the tools one day at college for 5 years before you qualified in a trade.
Then you learn’t the correct way to complete a job and beyond, with also information and skills to interlink with other skills on site, to think of other trades following on, and try and make it simple for them as well.
Now they learn entirely on the job, from others who have never been trained properly, thus pick up bad habits, so have a limited set of shoddy skills, and think of no one else but themselves.
This together with having to get your hands dirty, working outside in all weathers, and usually breaking your skeleton before the age of 60, means fewer want to go into the construction industry.
No wonder so many shoddy jobs are now completed Nationwide.
There are still some very skilled people about, but they tend not to do site work !
January 21, 2024
Donât they do this anymore at all Alan, I thought there were skilled trade apprenticeship schemes.
January 22, 2024
A Tracy
There are so called apprenticeship schemes, but not with Tech College courses with a substantial qualification like City & Guilds, HNC etc etc.
Now it is mainly all employer taught and NVQ certificates, no where near the extensive level of learning that used to be the case of decades ago.
Some so called trade courses are now completed in less than 6 months.
January 21, 2024
Exactly. It should go back to how it was and STEM subjects should be free and those studying them should not be coming out with eye watering debts (England only of course) plus a punitive 6% interest on top. Especially when Johnâs Government are writing off 78% of all debt for those studying duff degrees that should never have gone to university in the first place. In other words, only the brightest are being penalised.
January 21, 2024
JoolsB
Yes amazing statistics aren’t they, but they (all Parties) have regarded the policy as a success for years !!
Many future students are now starting to wise up to the farcical cost by either, choosing a University near to their parents home, to save on accommodation and living costs, applying for jobs with ongoing relevant learning included so they earn whilst they learn, or play the system to their own advantage with regards to their future where the debt is either written off or will never be paid, due to restricted earnings/part time employment, marriage, or working abroad.
January 21, 2024
Jools, weâll only know for sure what writing off is being done in 2038 when the first plan 1 loans from 2008 at ÂŁ3500 pa plus the maintenance loan. Before that fees were only about a ÂŁ1000 so surely those will have all been paid off after 30 years.
2023 is the half-way point of the plan 1 (2008-2038) loan repayment, it would be interesting to get an update as to how many students have paid back half their loan, I know several students that have paid off the full amount already.
January 21, 2024
Good morning
Ah the universities. Another Blair reform. It meant a lot of useless courses for exorbitant fees and student debt, with the added bonus of foreign students paying more and pushing out UK ones.
And another thing about Blairs reforms. Not one of them have been overturned in the lat 14 years.
January 21, 2024
No reforms of Blair laws but EDI, ESG, non Equality laws to discriminate against White English men added. Then the Tory’s legislated Sex Laws to indoctrinate our very young children with LGBT xyxz in our schools ensuring parents can’t exclude their children from this propaganda.
We need these Tory wreckers out. We need conservative policies and values. We need Reform.
January 21, 2024
We now can be confident the diversity, equality and i clubs Iâve posts infested throughout the public sector by the Tory party is to force through its mass immigration policy without challenge. Blaire and Harman were successful with this approach with Equality legislation, Tory party has now built on it. This can also be seen by allowing the continuance s.172 Companies Act in the private sector. Tories had an 85 seat majority and 14 years to change this socialism.
Osborne made clear although Tory party manifesto and policy stated one thing to get elected they were not serious in private. Further supported by Cameron insults to his voters who opposed mass immigration, they were Turnip Taliban or Swivelled eyed loons.
Itâs for Tory party do not be surprised they lied to you again!! Sunak currently in papers saying growth, low taxes etc. who in their right mind would believe him!! Perhaps JR and a few others continually live in hope.
January 21, 2024
University grants based on highest performance were better. Success needs failures or canât exist. Giving every student âloansâ to allow graduation in Worthlessness is crazy. Most who pass in that donât pay it back.
Earlier, about 4% qualified for university. Opening it to all devalues to the lowest depths. Students need to keep their head above water. Apprenticeships are a more reliable way to stay afloat.
January 21, 2024
Bloke, your claim that âmost who pass in that donât pay backâ. How do you know? Where are you getting your figures from I keep trying to look for them, those paying ÂŁ3500 started university in 2008 before that fees were only around ÂŁ1000 so if they only borrowed ÂŁ3000 for a 3 year degree and were paying that back from ÂŁ16k youâd expect them to have all paid back Blairs fees from 1998 by now and certainly by 2028. If you have seen the individual course repayments from 1998 please provide me with a link.
January 22, 2024
Any loan amount not repaid is worthless.
January 21, 2024
I disagree with the people who say many degrees are worthless but what was appropriate many years ago isn’t today.
This is a very competitive world and if degrees do not prepare students for their jobs at least they learn to make an academic argument and observe how life in Universities is similarly competitive.
It is a closeted world and academia perpetuates academia.
This world is changing quickly and we.must look at our priorities.
January 21, 2024
But degrees are like money.
Devalued by increased quantity/supply.
It has to be the case.
I once had a history lecturer who had worked in America ( early 60s or thereabouts). We assumed he was joking when he talked about degrees in âbasket-weavingâ.
But he wasnât far wrong.
January 21, 2024
“Academia perpetuates academia”
Absolutely correct and that is why so many courses are failing their students, the people teaching/lecturing have actually never done anything in the real world themselves, it’s all been theory, learnt foremothers who have never actually done anything themselves. !
The sad fact is some actually go through their whole life talking and teaching, having never practiced what they preach at all.
No wonder as a Country we are slowly going down the drain.
January 21, 2024
I don’t like the way universitys have become drivers of social engineering now either. With the course fee plus accommodation taking up the full student loan in many places, it is only people with family wealth to help them that can take up many courses. This is especially true for longer courses like medicine, a course with limited scope to get a job to help your funds as you are expected to work for the NHS for buttons. Also the way you are expected to move across the country randomly and unpredictability to take up rotations can be very expensive and disruptive. And of course the professional fees are expensive. I don’t think it’s possible for a working class kid to pursue this kind of course any more. Whereas short courses for PA’s and AA’s are far cheaper and result in far higher pay far sooner. It’s almost as if the state is encouraging poor kids who want to work in healthcare into being PA’s while their richer cousins will remain able to do proper medical courses.
The absolute opposite of a meritocracy, and getting the best people into jobs.
It’s also dumbing down healthcare so that soon only the rich will see doctors, the rest will be palmed off with PA’s who are simply unqualified to diagnose and make massive mistakes.
All social engineering by the blob, with no public consultation, never been in a manifesto, never discussed at elections, just foisted on us all.
January 21, 2024
Margaret : âThis is a very competitive world and if degrees do not prepare students for their jobs at least they learn to make an academic argument and observe how life in Universities is similarly competitive.â
Academic argument in our universities ?
I suppose that that would include today âcancel cultureâ, âno platformingâ, âsafe spacesâ, lecturers sacked for their views, politics led âscienceâ and of course âinclusivityâ which really means âno freedom of speechâ to avoid anyone feeling excluded.
Diversity will eventually lead to the demise of our universities as the degrees become entirely meaningless and worthless.
January 21, 2024
Iain gill : “The absolute opposite of a meritocracy, and getting the best people into jobs.”
The communist fifth column that have infested our Government Parliament, Civil Service, judiciary and our institutions are deliberately using diversity to replace meritocracy as a way to desroy the West’s wealth, social cohesion, competence and abiliities.
January 21, 2024
We have what are considered to be world class universities, although I suspect the clampdown on freedom of thought and speech and the imposition of woke means that won’t be the case for very much longer.
We also have a very large number of 3rd and 4th rate pretendy-universities which are selling overpriced ‘ologies and Mickey Mouse “degrees” which have no real value and will not lead to a graduate-level job. What they do do, however, is keep a large number of left-wing “professors” in well-paid employment where they can indoctrinate their students into left-wing policies.
These 3rd and 4th rate pretendy-universities are also effectively selling foreigners the ability to migrate to the UK, along with their extended families. And once again, British taxpayers are expected to provide the accommodation, public services and welfare they require.
The quickest and best solution is to close down the 3rd and 4th rate pretendy-universities, by starving them of funding. But this treacherous Government won’t do that; just like it won’t do anything else which is in the interests of the BRITISH people.
January 21, 2024
From family and friends experience tutors are delivering very little, few meaningful lectures, poor work perusal, encouraging self internet research rather than teaching. Its mostly a con that they are required.
January 21, 2024
Return the 3 and 4 th rated universities back to technical colleges to have high skilled workforce. Use to work perfectly for late developers and create a pool of qualified people for industries.
January 21, 2024
The 3rd/4th raters should be returned to their ‘Tech’/’Poly’ origins and resume the trade and other technical training that we seem to so badly lack at the moment. We need a highly skilled workforce and one with practical (e.g. usable) skills. I’ve not looked at what tax breaks are available these days for company sponsored apprentice schemes. However, encouraging the private sector to invest and guide these schemes would be a far better investment. The usual moronic HR line of “you need a degree” for this role (even if it is on The ethnic culture of the Mogols) throws up all sorts of strange candidates. I’ve interviewed a fair number of post-grads in my time and they ranged from the seemingly illiterate to the almost unworldly (e,g, completely out of it) and that was many years ago. Goodness knows what ‘progress’ we’ve managed since then.
January 21, 2024
Donna,
Do we still pay for free university tuition for EU students who attend Scottish universities. We did when my son attended there! Quite outrageous.
January 21, 2024
âFree university tuition for EU students in Scotland endsâ, 09/07/2020, bbc.co.uk
January 21, 2024
Donna :
Correct.
The way to close down the â3rd and 4th rate pretendy-universitiesâ who give expensive employment to far left professors who have the time to cause trouble stopping other people getting to work etc. is to make these universities liable for their own tuition fees. If their âstudentsâ after their university âeducationâ are unable to pay for this âeducationâ then the university will be responsible for its own loss of income and not the tax payer.
The universities are, like all those employers who love cheap foreign labour, work on the business model of making vast profits whilst the taxpayer is picks up the costs.
The university sector needs halving at the very least.
January 21, 2024
Plus1.
January 21, 2024
I have a nephew who has a degree in ‘Fine Arts’ or some such cobblers. It cost his parents a ton of money to do it and now he works in a cafe. No jobs in his expertise. Probably all tied up to the literarty of public school and Oxbridge people.
January 21, 2024
The fascist left have weaponised and politicised all levels of education for both cultural, political and profitable purposes. We’re dealing with an existential threat who see importation as a weapon of cultural and demographic war. It started under New Labour, accelerated under the gutless, complicit Tories who fear the ‘racist tag’ and will sell their soul to the devil to avoid it and when Labour come to power you will an explosion of this form of war.
Look at Ireland’s plan and how they intend to remodel that country along very different demographic and democratic lines.
‘we will rub the Tories (Britain) nose in diversity (a pernicious form of racism)’. This one sentence has destroyed the Tory party and will destroy this nation and the Tories will stand aside and cheer it
January 21, 2024
DOM
I think you will find that it all started way back in the late 1950’s – 1960’s with qualified LSE students then gradually infiltrating the whole teaching system, well before Blair and new Labour.
That is why it is now so widespread, as since then generations of students have been slowly brainwashed by the left, social arguments, thoughts, and now WOKE ideology, and those people are now at the top level at many Universities.
January 21, 2024
Difference is the essence of existence.
A bus conductor commented to a child passenger playing with plasticine. âIf you keep mixing up those pieces like that youâll end up with one horrible purple colour you canât change back and wonât like itâ.
January 21, 2024
It is a very bad idea. And incredibly unfair too.
ButâŠas with the NHS it is a very, very good vehicle for mass immigration.
Touchy feely ideas made into de facto realities which are then guarded ferociously until the mob becomes so confident it literally ships immigrants in by the boatloads.
January 21, 2024
If John Redwood expressed his well known views that align with Javier Milei’s views he’d be Tory leader in under six months.
Reply You do not understand MPs and how the system works!
January 21, 2024
I see what you mean butâŠ
More likely bound in chains and thrown in the Tower. Weâd have to launch a rescue.
In any case Milei is apparently happy with anti free speech monopolies ( from what I could make out). These people pop up and never fulfil their initial promise.
Which is odd!
January 21, 2024
Either paid off or muzzled
January 21, 2024
and you Sir are not enslaved to the WEF – so no chance.
January 21, 2024
We do understand MP’s. That’s why we need them removed. All lefty pretendy One Nation conservatives.
January 21, 2024
The only way to get back to Thatcherite values in the party is for constituency parties to get to grips with the choice of candidates and throw out a large proportion of the One Nation group ( which used to be called “The Wets” and were a much smaller group in Margaret’s time).
Either that, or MPs have to be as scared as Cameron was of the Brexit Party, now Reform, and vote for a new leader to make the change himself/herself. I can’t see anyone likely to get the job who would do that, among the current group of MPs
January 21, 2024
As I’ve said before – we need a new system.
January 21, 2024
We DO!!!
January 21, 2024
Nah. Retire to the coast and Leave the World Behind.
January 21, 2024
Universities are an immigration route for foreign students. Nothing more.
January 21, 2024
Correct
January 21, 2024
What % of the international graduates stay working in the UK after the first two years?
ONS â Figure 3 shows the proportions of students staying in the country after their first study course. Those in the East of England (46%) and London (44%) are the most likely to stay after their first study visa, whereas students in Yorkshire and The Humber (32%) and Scotland (30%) are the least likely to do so.â
Source https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/articles/visajourneysandstudentoutcomes/2021-11-29#:~:text=Figure%203%20shows%20the%20proportions,least%20likely%20to%20do%20so.
So if higher and higher number of international students arenât trained doesnât that mean less graduate placements for English grads to apply for?
January 21, 2024
A recent report from Bristol University showed that around 75% of the UKâs primary energy use is still based on fossil fuels – oil products for nearly all transport, gas for 70% of heating and about 40% of electricity. Although oil prices have risen, it is as nothing compared to the rise in gas prices, which are still 400% higher than pre-pandemic. This leads some to suggest that by 2025, the average household will be spending 20% of their income on heat and power, and 40% for the least well off. And this is before other price rises still filtering through in all things from food to household products and services due to the higher energy costs.
It is an unsustainable position that has led the Opposition to call for a price freeze – a call now echoed in speculation about the governmentâs current energy package post-election, which is rumoured to come in at ÂŁ170bn in total. This would be equivalent to 3-4 times the cost of the pandemic furlough scheme, and nearly half of all the taxes ever raised from the North Sea.
Clearly, if we are to avoid bankruptcy as a nation, with our national debt is ÂŁ2.4 TRILLION, we need more renewable sources harvesting cheap free wind and solar energy. Rapidly.
January 21, 2024
You need to write 1000 lines. “There is no such thing as cheap and free wind and solar energy.”
Here’s confirmation “UK boosts latest renewable subsidies round by ÂŁ22m. UK Government will pour an additional ÂŁ22m ($27.86m) into its latest renewable power subsidies, taking the total budget to ÂŁ227m for this auction. According to a statement from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published on Thursday, the government will increase the budget for established technologies such as solar and offshore wind by ÂŁ20m, bringing the new amount to ÂŁ190 million.”
ÂŁ190 million in subsidies is not cheap, let alone free.
https://www.power-technology.com/news/uk-government-boosts-renewables-subsidies-by-20m/#:~:text=By%20increasing%20funding%2C%20along%20with,the%20country's%20renewable%20power%20industry.&text=Energy%20Security%20Secretary%20Grant%20Shapps,economy%20and%20secure%20skilled%20jobs.
January 21, 2024
@Donna
Today wind and solar are producing about 20GW of extremely cheap elecricity, or 50% of electricity demand – which is powering all our EV charging and heat pumps. Try writing that out 1000 times until it sinks in
January 21, 2024
âExtremely cheapâ, how do you work that out with the all the subsidies we are required to pay from our standing charges on our electricity and gas bills, on the extra charges, the 5% vat on household energy. If it was extremely cheap and profitable it wouldnât need subsidising.
January 21, 2024
SG
And when the wind does not blow, and the sun does not shine ?
At the moment no economic way off storing this so called “free, cheap energy”
Oil and Gas are also free, it is the cost of harnessing that so called free source of power that is the problem with all of the earths resources.
Then of course we have Tax ie subsidy at its varying rates, which adds complication to any real comparison.
January 21, 2024
@Berkshire Alan
Once we have 2-3 million EV’s charging up overnight on extremely cheap Economy 7 elecricity, we will have an energy strorage system. Why to you think the fossil fuel lobby is so terrified of EVs? Its because thet represent an existential threat to Big Oil’s business model
January 21, 2024
by then it won’t be Cheap Economy 7. Thats naive.
January 21, 2024
Is that solar power and non existent batteries charging those EV’s?
January 22, 2024
Ah yes, cheap energy …. tomorrow.
But it’s a tomorrow that never seems to come.
January 22, 2024
SG
But if you are using an EV for something else other than driving, then you limit the driving range even further, then with more charge and discharge operations, the battery degrades further.
It is well known in the industry that each charge and discharge of a battery depletes its storage capacity by a tiny fraction each time, degrading it’s useful overall life span.
Powering your house, or topping it up using your car battery will prove to be very, very expensive in the long run, when you take into account battery replacement costs.
January 21, 2024
It might be so windy today that the sails will be braked to a standstill, and sun too short and weak to do anything much. Where’s that pile of logs, and remaining coal? Get the matches and candles ready.
January 21, 2024
A primary school has been forced to close six times in just three months because its brand new ÂŁ358,000 heat pump system keeps failing.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2024/01/21/school-closes-six-times-in-three-months-because-of-net-zero-agenda/#more-71150
January 21, 2024
If a large part of our energy supply is still based on fossil fuels, that is surely because wind and solar are not up to the task, especially in cold periods of less wind and less sunshine. That is what we have seen in recent weeks. SG, you want the country to spend more money on technology that is failing to produce what we need. As that happens, we find ourselves having to spend out yet more money on importing energy.
It’s time to pause and rethink on future energy sources. Renewables may have a role to play, but making them the centrepiece of our energy resource looks like suicidal.
January 21, 2024
SG : ââŠ..we need more renewable sources harvesting cheap free wind and solar energy. Rapidly.â
Nonsense. Wind and solar energy, which because they are not reliable and hence require another energy source, such as gas for grid-scale back-up and gird stability, are inevitably more expensive than either gas (even today) or nuclear.
The Auction Round 6 prices for wind and solar are more expensive than nuclear fission (see the recent HoC ES&NZ Select Committee evidence sessions on the subject âKeeping The Power Onâ) and more expensive than the DESNZâs own estimate for gas when the carbon taxes have been removed (see DESNZ Electricity Generating Costs 2023).
BTW, are wind and solar âfreeâ or âcheapâ? Either way, why are they still subsidised with Auction Rounds because surely the wind and solar industries must in the current energy market be making a killing if wind and solar are âcheapâ or even âfreeâ?
In fact the business model of renewable energy is just like that of the universities. Profits are made on the energy supplied but the taxpayer or consumer picks up all the very, very expensive costs of grid-scale back-up and grid stability because of the chaotic intermittency of renewables.
January 21, 2024
So please tell how the renewables are so cheap that our bills are continually going up when you often brag how much renewable electricity is being fed to the grid.
January 21, 2024
Universities as businesses are interesting things. I believe right wing societies evolve through small increments in 5 systems and problems can be systematically analysed and solutions found using this framework.
Life – DNA -> family + utilities
Markets – Money -> consumers + producers
Information – Facts -> pupils + researchers
Justice -> judgements -> citizens + judges
Politics -> votes -> voters + politicians
So in the âInformation systemâ when universities become businesses then two aspects of society become conflated. I would also add other aspects into this information system including news, internet content creators and political advisors. This can lead to conflicts of interest.
For example I read yesterday that the Royal Society produced a report that previous advice given to Government had massively underestimated by an order of magnitude the need for energy storage, because previous advice given to ministers assumed the weather of 2019 in limited locations when the wind blew at night and we had a sunny year, whereas the Royal Society had looked at the weather over 30 years. The Royal Society basically said reliance on renewable energy was a complete sham of an idea that would never happen. This shows how the information business can become corrupted at a national level and create a serious political disaster.
We saw a similar problem when drug companies sponsored academics give overbearing political advice during pandemics. I would have kept the advisors at arms length and listened several of them with competing theories giving advice independently.
Another aspect of universities as businesses is that universities were created very much for the benefit of society to pass on information for the national interest. When universities become a business they educate the highest bidder. So what we are seeing is British students being pushed out by foreign students. This reduction in education contradicts Blair setting up mass education for the national good. Universities are not effectively draining the country of resources just like outsourcing of business does. When free citizenship is lumped ontop of a foreigners degree then suddenly a degree looks like a green card not a degree.
This mess requires stronger laws to be in place and a stronger regulator to enforce them. I would suggest a maximum 20% of university places on each course to be made available to foreigners of friendly countries and no automatic path to a work permit unless British graduates are offered the job first. I would also have stopped grade inflation to stop lesser academic pupils going to university and limited the places to the top quartile.
Universities are in the business of research and passing on information to pupils. This system also
January 21, 2024
Back to why do we allow education to be flooded by foeigners, especially Chinese!
January 21, 2024
Some opine that if 100% of watch repair craftsmen in Wales were indigenous, a quota should allow Mexicans or Eskimos and all others to reduce that number.
One wonders how many ginger haired Irish or curly haired African folk are visible in the National Peopleâs Congress of China.
In contrast, the UKâs highest offices of government are mixed.
January 21, 2024
I watched a very interesting Russian film called the The Space Walker. You can get it on youtube for ÂŁ3. Superficially itâs about the Sovietâs first walk in space. At a deeper level itâs about how a top down left wing system operates inefficiently.
When you watch the film you can spot the many failings.
– The USA announces its plan to walk a man in space in 1965 which is 3 years faster.
– The Russians then accelerate their plan by 3 years taking huge risks given their lower budgets.
– A political wall poster implores people to work harder and take risks for mother Russia, which replaces the right wing motivation of profit and reward
– A fighter jet ground crew forgets to remove a bolt during a pre flight check due to lack of motivation and it is covered up.
– Orders are given in a top down manner and there is little to no incentive to act without permission
– There is a fear of acting without permission.
– Only fearless âcrazyâ high risk individuals can get around the stifling top down rules.
A really good film.
January 21, 2024
Javelin :
Capitalism uses the carrot, communism uses the stick.
History shows us which works better yet our elites still prefer the latter.
January 21, 2024
And they didn’t even have DEI – they could promote on merit.
January 21, 2024
Probably another aspect of national life where the clock should be rewound to about 1985. The stupidity of substituting maintenance grants for loans, the expansion of noddy degrees and importing students willy nilly to offshore our technical and engineering expertise whilst our people study golf and hairdressing is eye-wateringly stupid. All under Tories/Libdem and Labour.
January 21, 2024
Lib Demâs decimated for promising free tuition and then did not deliver. It was only free for EU students and subsidised for other home nations. English taxpayers paid for it!!
January 21, 2024
I suspect that lowering the bar in the quality of University courses yet increases in the number of second and third tier Polys and Techs was to emulate the USA system to attract international fee -paying students with consequential damage.
January 21, 2024
Let us not forget that academia is a gravy train. Huge salaries, massive pensions, loooong holidays and no performance targets. Someone can leave school, go to university, do a doctorate and stay on teaching, writing papers, doing research etc. and the retire on a massive pension when they are 55. What a life. What a gravy train.
January 21, 2024
Why not compress the 3 year degrees into one, or two years, after all 8 hours or less a week tuition is hardly value for money at the moment is it, students seem to have rather too much free time on their hands, and with Ai coming down the tracks filtering so called “own work” from that produced by a computer is surely likely to be an ongoing problem.
Universities as we know them now will surely have to change or eventually go under.
The huge growth in poor universities under Blaire, and the loss of good technical colleges was a disaster not just for the country but for many skilled trades from where good managers/business owners evolved.
January 21, 2024
âToo many foreign students changes the ethos and culture of the institution and limits places for UK students where we want a better educated and skilled workforce.â
120,000 Chinese âstudentsâ are definitely having an effect on the âethos and cultureâ of our universities as well as stealing our IP and research work.
Our unelected Foreign Secretary plans to visit China as part of his approach of âengagementâ with Beijing on issues such as climate change. No doubt the Chinese President will convince him, if WEF hasnât already, to de-industrialise the UK even faster and at the same time close down our military and nuclear arsenal.
January 21, 2024
Exactly. The Chinese laugh at our ridiculous climate change believers. In Chinese lisp they would say “Let us pway they keep belieffing! They can then take over all manufacturing whilst providing our Government with useless windmills and solar panels, that don’t work when the Sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow or even too hard! Then they’ll put the prices up once a monopoly is achieved. Fools one and all. Time for change. We desperately need educated engineers, real scientists with oodles of common sense thrown in. Sadly lacking and very obvious in Westminster. Reform!
January 21, 2024
The negative outcomes from allowing so many foreign students into UK universities have been known for many years. Those problems should have been stopped early but have been allowed to become even worse.
January 21, 2024
The current university system requires lots of foreign students to cover its costs. It is a model that is way out of date and far, far too expensive.
Apart from medicine and science, all degree courses could easily be reduced to two years of full time study. By that, I mean a 40 hour office-based working week with 4-6 weeks annual holiday. Term times are far too short at present and the little contact time students receive is poor value for money compared with their ÂŁ9,000 a year fees.
Student debts would be halved and far more work would actually be done. Proper working hours would also prepare students for the world of work. Having been a student landlord, I know only too well that many students are lazy, parting the night away, and staying in bed till lunchtime.
January 21, 2024
âLarge number of places for overseas studentsâ there is irony in that, the media hype and government soundbites push the premise we need foreign workers to fill the need for a skilled workplace, even for doctors and medical practitioners. Yet the places for skilling our own, are replaced with skilling others.
It is of course the Universities pursuance at all cost higher fee-paying students, conveniently forgetting the State Subsidy they already receive, paid for by the endeavours of the indigenous population. Foreign students have not funded their full course value, its just a warped interpretation from some that run our universities to even think that.
January 21, 2024
Only slightly as an aside, but should be a serious consideration for the UKâs âOverseas Aid Budgetâ it should first be spent on the lost cost to the taxpayer on funding our universities in supporting these foreign students. Like UK Citizens they only pay just a part of the Cost, unlike their UK counterparts they have no connection to those that are paying the bulk of it. Also, all the money spent on both legal and illegal asylum seekers etc., should be seen as part the UKâs âOverseas Aid Budgetâ
Our financial woes are all as a result of the Conservative Government refusal to manage and get a grip on their own expenditure â they just waste money. Looking after Foreign, there fore Overseas Citizens should be from the same allocated budget â not some magical money tree.
January 21, 2024
University Business Model or Government Business Model
This government has to take full ownership of the model âŠyou fund them
January 21, 2024
Maintaining the high level of skill and effective communication at University is unquestionably important and expensive . I was involved for several years after retiring from my consultancy business at 2 of Oxford Colleges ; I was always impressed at the intelligence and skills of the Tutors and Students ; during this time there were only some non – English students at one of them ; today it is a different matter all due to the cost of operating . I do not agree with the approach to attract more ” foreign” students merely to increase University funding but I have seen the advantage of having some international contribution in its intellectual mix . Other sources of income beyond student fees are necessary as Sir John points out and the Governing Bodies at these institutions should include individuals who are adept at financial management and marketing .
January 21, 2024
‘Some of these universities imply there is no other way of covering costs other than a big rise in foreign students.’
Let them go bust.âWe have too many school leavers attending university.âConsequently we have too many universities.âSome children learn nothing at school after 14.âFor some, 16.âOthers manage ‘A’ levels but a decent university course is beyond them; there lies Geography.âAll of these benefit by entering the workforce sooner instead.âThey wouldn’t be bored at school for years which puts them off learning for life.âThey’d have older role models.âThey’d learn on the job and can decide to switch industries without wasting years and building up debt at the tax-payers’ expense.âThey’d earn money and can start to learn to value and budget from within the safety net of home.
Some of them might decide a degree is needed and pursue it as a ‘mature’ student a few years older than the norm.âThey’d be more motivated and better educated by the workplace than the school indoctrination.
January 21, 2024
English universities should exist for no other purpose than training the next generation of the English; this should apply at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level. The A level exam should be returned to the Russell Group for setting in order to reverse the grade inflation which makes selection of students on merit unnecessarily difficult and creates far too many people purportedly qualifying for university education. Full grants for study and maintenance should be available for qualifying English students to study subjects which are necessary for an advanced country; these typically will be science and engineering and exclude subjects that pose as science like psychology but are nothing of the sort. Arts subjects should be taught to maintain the teaching of our English cultural traditions and ensure linguistic competence for foreigner facing roles. The ex-polys should revert to offering local people the skills which they are require.
The operation of the exam system and higher education as a money making racket for the benefit of for profit exam boards, the vice-Chancellors and teaching staff, wasting people’s time learning inapplicable material whilst sucking in hundreds of thousands of non-returnable foreigners every year should end forthwith.
January 21, 2024
Its great to find your local barista, checkout /shelf stacker, intern has a great sounding degree.
January 21, 2024
The justification for expanding universities is that it would lead to a higher-skilled workforce and, thus, better living standards. But this has yet to happen.
Most of the expansion has occurred in the lower ranks of universities, and course entrance standards have dropped. Businesses neglected job-related training. Emphasis is now on workers training themselves out of their post-tax income. Instead of improving, productivity has fallen.
To fix this, introduce the following changes:
a) Only allow universities to have less than five per cent of their students on courses in which their graduates earn, on average, less than the median wage after five years. Withhold student loans and visas from these courses if the institutions do not meet these targets.
b) Encourage universities to offer more vocational courses in areas with a strong demand for workers (i.e. where industry lobbies for adding jobs to the immigration shortage occupation list).
c) Introduce tax incentives for firms and individuals to train themselves to create a revolution of training for the workplace.
Doing this will help produce the highly skilled, high-paid society we all want.
January 21, 2024
Universities play the hand they are dealt by government. While government displays, even within its own enterprises, little concept of what is required.
Take the NHS, short of medical staff and left to poaching them from the developing world. Perversely government contribute financially to charities operating medical projects in the same developing world. All at the taxpayers expense of course.
Who gains from the way universities operate. Government gets interest on student loans. Universities from the fees they charge. Meanwhile the NHS and industry remain short of skilled professionals.
A solution would be for all potential medical professionals, identified by end of school qualifications, to receive their training for free. The payback would be that they contractually serve the NHS for the first ten years of their professional career. I would advocate doing something similar for engineers, scientists, teachers and any other professionals we suffer a shortage from. More thought on the mechanism for none governmental industry is required on how workers commit their talents and for what period. Private industry should not get a free ride to benefit from such a scheme. Such schemes already exist, but making it universal requires careful thought. I consider burdoning graduates with the repayment with interest of loans from ÂŁ30,000 to ÂŁ100,000 is not the way to go. If you want them on the housing market this is not the way to achieve it.
It would take five to ten years before the country could feel the benefit in terms of the NHS. It would only work if government ceased back loading patients via failed immigration permissions. Tbey also need to stop thinking in election spans
I would only allow foreign students into our education system with MI5, Cabinet, and PM approval. Exactly the same with foreign endowments of our universities. MI5 involvement is essential as we still have politicians in high places with dubious foreign links. MI5 have the ultimate black books.
I contend that our universities are ultimately there for the benefit of the UK, and their alumni have a responsibility to give part of what they have learnt back to the UK in terms of service before choosing to go off and conqueur the world.
January 21, 2024
Whilst “The Endowment model of leading US and UK universities is a good one” by channelling funds to universities it does make them reliant upon charity which is not a certainly reliable model.
Universities seem to prefer to rely upon tuition fees, especially from overseas students. That is understandable since ÂŁ1/2 million vice chancellors do not pay for themselves but it risks transforming universities into degree mills where quality control is sacrificed to profit.
January 21, 2024
Why are we automatically awarding two year work visas for people who pay to study here? Why donât you just stop doing that other than for shortage occupations, and if they are short of British graduates why donât you open up more places on those training schemes for âBritishâ trainees.
Years ago a university course was restricted to say 20 students. Then in 2013 something happened that suddenly those very same courses were opened up to double and sometimes triple the number of students, with the serious problem being that now there are too many graduates from those courses for too few jobs! Then weâre told insufficient numbers of doctors and nurses were trained, its all madness.
January 21, 2024
How would the socialists be able to levy VAT on school fees but not on university fees? In the hairsplitting litigious age we live in, surely it should be possible to take this to the ever popular judicial review?
January 22, 2024
I pondered this as well, Rose. Shouldn’t private international student fees have VAT added, even if the government covers UK student university VAT? If not, why not?
January 22, 2024
I find it a shame that there are not enough students qualifying in the “Hard Sciences” to put the “Soft Science” spin on Climate Change under appropriate scrutiny. Just saying “Peer Reviewed” science is not good enough when the “Peers” that are selected to do the reviewing have a vested interest in keeping the alarmism going.