Who got the government’s 10,000 extra student numbers?
Debbie is Editor of Wonkhe
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The announcement is the conclusion of the Department for Education (DfE)’s bidding round for places – it ran a metrics-based threshold for “quality” based on retention and employability data, and eligible universities – in all nations of the UK – submitted bids for the additional places. All eligible bids were accepted – and although the bids for healthcare places exceeded the 5,000 limit (in the end all 5,611 were approved) the bid for places in strategically important subjects only amounted to 3,859, well short of the 5,000 limit.
So, is this policy success or policy failure? You could view this as a test-run for the imposition of stricter number controls based on quality thresholds. Failure to meet the projected numbers could be seen as a problem, with the outcome being less additional human capital and skills. Or it could be argued that the public can now be more confident that only “high quality” providers are able to deliver these courses. You could also argue that when the government said “go ahead and step up to the plate”, the bit of the sector that was allowed to has somehow not quite managed to fill its boots.
Whichever way you view it, in any other year the notion of “extra” places would be a fiction – it’s only the existence of the student number cap (2020-21 forecast plus five per cent) that creates the possibility of extra places. You could argue that the policy failure here is with universities for asking for the cap in the first place, given they could have in theory delivered these additional places at any time in the last eight years. There’s also the small matter of whether students will be recruited to those places, which remains to be seen.
And given that we have totals by subject and totals by provider (but not totals by subject and provider, if you see what I mean) what we can’t really judge meaningfully is whether these places are any in way “extra”.
If Grittleton Institute of HE got 150 extra engineering places in this exercise, what’s to stop it now recruiting 140 extra English students and claiming it was only planning to recruit 10 until now? If, when we get to the autumn, we can’t see 3,500 more of these “good value” enrolments in these providers than we had last year, presumably there will be trouble. By then that might be the least of DfE’s worries.
Institution | Strategic Importance | Initial Teacher Training | Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Healthcare | Total Additional |
---|---|---|---|---|
Anglia Ruskin University | 0 | 0 | 250 | 250 |
Aberystwyth University | 100 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
AECC University College, Bournemouth | 0 | 0 | 20 | 20 |
Bishop Grosseteste University | 0 | 25 | 0 | 25 |
Bournemouth University | 0 | 0 | 21 | 21 |
Bucks New University | 0 | 0 | 45 | 45 |
City, University of London | 0 | 0 | 99 | 99 |
Coventry University | 55 | 0 | 60 | 115 |
Edge Hill University | 0 | 20 | 240 | 260 |
GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART | 15 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
King’s College London | 250 | 0 | 50 | 300 |
Kingston & St George's, University of London | 0 | 0 | 34 | 34 |
Liverpool Hope University | 35 | 40 | 0 | 75 |
Liverpool John Moores University | 0 | 0 | 90 | 90 |
London Metropolitan University | 0 | 0 | 20 | 20 |
London Southbank University | 0 | 0 | 116 | 116 |
Loughborough University | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 |
Manchester Metropolitan University | 0 | 0 | 65 | 65 |
Middlesex University | 0 | 0 | 125 | 125 |
Nottingham Trent University | 87 | 0 | 130 | 217 |
Oxford Brookes University | 0 | 0 | 32 | 32 |
Sheffield Hallam University | 0 | 0 | 294 | 294 |
Staffordshire University | 0 | 0 | 20 | 20 |
Swansea University | 250 | 0 | 0 | 250 |
Teesside University | 0 | 0 | 214 | 214 |
The Royal Veterinary College | 65 | 0 | 0 | 65 |
The University of Birmingham | 250 | 0 | 40 | 290 |
The University of Bradford | 15 | 0 | 111 | 126 |
The University of Essex | 119 | 0 | 77 | 196 |
The University of Huddersfield | 0 | 25 | 80 | 105 |
The University of Kent | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 |
The University of Lancaster | 100 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
The University of Leeds | 200 | 0 | 35 | 235 |
The University of Leicester | 147 | 0 | 120 | 267 |
The University of Liverpool | 125 | 0 | 40 | 165 |
The University of Manchester | 250 | 0 | 40 | 290 |
The University of Northampton | 0 | 0 | 100 | 100 |
The University of West London | 0 | 0 | 175 | 175 |
The University of Wolverhampton | 0 | 0 | 242 | 242 |
Truro and Penwith College (in association with University of Greenwich) | 0 | 0 | 100 | 100 |
University College Birmingham | 0 | 0 | 70 | 70 |
University College London | 230 | 0 | 0 | 230 |
University of Aberdeen | 25 | 0 | 0 | 25 |
University of Bolton | 0 | 0 | 200 | 200 |
University of Brighton | 0 | 0 | 78 | 78 |
University of Bristol | 185 | 0 | 0 | 185 |
University of Central Lancashire | 0 | 0 | 74 | 74 |
University of Chester | 0 | 30 | 127 | 157 |
University of Cumbria | 0 | 0 | 101 | 101 |
University of Dundee | 60 | 0 | 0 | 60 |
University of Durham | 250 | 20 | 0 | 270 |
University of East London | 0 | 0 | 88 | 88 |
University of Exeter | 50 | 0 | 50 | 100 |
University of Gloucestershire | 0 | 20 | 210 | 230 |
University of Greenwich | 0 | 0 | 206 | 206 |
University of Hertfordshire | 0 | 0 | 70 | 70 |
University of Hull | 0 | 0 | 52 | 52 |
University of Lincoln | 0 | 0 | 75 | 75 |
University of Newcastle upon Tyne | 235 | 0 | 15 | 250 |
University of Northumbria at Newcastle | 0 | 120 | 126 | 246 |
University of Oxford | 61 | 0 | 0 | 61 |
University of Plymouth | 0 | 10 | 99 | 109 |
University of Roehampton | 0 | 0 | 50 | 50 |
University of Salford | 0 | 0 | 113 | 113 |
University of Southampton | 130 | 0 | 37 | 167 |
University of Strathclyde | 25 | 0 | 0 | 25 |
University of Sunderland | 0 | 0 | 124 | 124 |
University of West of England | 0 | 0 | 50 | 50 |
University of Worcester | 0 | 25 | 473 | 498 |
University of York | 100 | 0 | 25 | 125 |
York St John University | 0 | 30 | 13 | 43 |
3494 | 365 | 5611 | 9470 |
Subject | Total Bid for |
---|---|
Architecture | 135 |
Biological sciences and biochemistry | 756 |
Chemistry | 228 |
Engineering | 1396 |
Engineering geology, hydrogeology, geophysics, geology and geochemistry | 43 |
Mathematics | 492 |
Physics | 281 |
Social work | 49 |
Veterinary Science | 114 |
Initial Teacher Training | 365 |
Subject | Total Bid for |
---|---|
Adult nursing | 2827 |
Nursing (children's) | 332 |
Mental Health nursing | 576 |
Learning Disability nursing | 68 |
Dental Hygiene/Dental Therapy | 63 |
Midwifery | 446 |
Dietetics | 59 |
Occupational Therapy | 186 |
ODPs | 116 |
Orthoptics | 3 |
Physiotherapy | 317 |
Podiatry/Chiropody | 33 |
Diagnostic Radiography | 201 |
Therapeutic Radiography | 44 |
Speech and Language Therapy | 30 |
Paramedics | 310 |
Intriguing to see two Scottish and one Welsh institution in the list… how does that work betwee the scope of the DfE’s role and devolved governments?
When you see univerisites asking for 200+ nursing places you have to wonder about the quality of the education, how will they meet the need for skills labs places and practice placements and mentorship amongst other practical consideration like enough lecturers to deliver?
And will they just take nursing students from other, local providers? I wait to be convinced that there will be an increase of more than 3000 nursing starters…
@Carol The new SSSA standards where a student can work with any supervisor should to some extent create some much needed practice placement capacity…