UK Higher Education Bill - Postgraduate Updates

If you happened to be tuned into BBC Parliament, late on Tuesday evening, you'd have seen an interesting spectacle. An admittedly small, but dedicated, group of MPs debating a set of important changes to UK universities, research and students (including postgraduates).

Had you also been watching particular hashtags on Twitter, you'd have seen a slightly larger group of people carefully analysing and commentating on that debate. I know, because I was one of them.

But, as in July, I'm going to assume you weren't glued to the progress of the new Higher Education and Research Bill. And that's OK. You probably had better things to do. Like preparing for your Masters or PhD.

But some of the changes it's set to make could have an impact on your future studies - particularly if you're planning on coming to the UK as an international student, or if you're concerned about future changes to student loans.

I've summarised three of the key points in this blog.

One of the most passionate parts of the debate actually had less to do with the Higher Education Bill itself and more to do with comments made by the UK Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, during the Conservative Party Conference, in June.

Back then Rudd alluded to future changes to the UK student visa system. She spoke, among other things, of 'tougher rules for lower quality courses'.

This raised concerns that some universities or degree programmes might face caps on international recruitment. It also raised the question of, how, exactly, those caps would be set - with many expecting the new 'Teaching Excellence Framework' (TEF) to be used.

The TEF will use a set of existing metrics to assess which universities offer the best teaching. From 2020-21 it will also apply to taught postgraduate courses.

Put simply, the concern was that universities who did poorly in the TEF might not be able to recruit as many international students (including those at Masters and PhD level).

It now looks like this (probably) isn’t the case.

Jo Johnson (The Minister for Universities and Science) faced several questions relating to international recruitment. He responded as follows:

"There is no limit on the number of genuine students who can come and study at our world-class institutions, and there is no better place than the UK to receive a higher education. We want to see more such students coming to study here."

Just as reassuringly, the Minister also suggested that ‘compliance’ was the main criteria by which universities would be judged. Essentially, this implies that new ‘quality’ metrics (such as the TEF) won’t have an impact on international recruitment. Instead, universities will simply be expected to follow the rules – much as they do now.

In principle, this should reassure future international postgraduates. A consultation on the details of new Government proposals is expected soon – we’ll cover any relevant details, as usual.

One possibility is that the Government will extend its current visa pilot scheme. This is specific to postgraduate Masters students, making it easier to acquire a Tier 4 (international student) visa at four select universities. The pilot also allows students to remain in the UK for up to six months after completing their Masters (rather than the usual four months).

One of the many changes to be introduced by the new Bill involves a reorganisation of the UK Research Councils. As you’re probably aware, these are the funding bodies that provide public money to train and support PhD students (and some Masters students).

The Government plans to bring all seven existing Research Councils under the supervision of a new body, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Part of the debate on Tuesday concerned the ongoing duty of UKRI to support postgraduate students, in all subject areas.

The Government's position was outlined as the Minister sought to ‘provide absolute clarity that UKRI will continue to support postgraduate training’.

This hopefully means that it will be business as usual, more or less, for PhD and Masters students seeking Research Council funding in future years. Though the planned arrival of PhD loans in 2018 will make a significant change to the postgraduate funding picture, overall.

We’ll be monitoring any important developments.

Don’t let the heading mislead you – the Bill itself isn’t proposing any changes to the way student loans (including postgraduate loans) are managed.

What the debate has done is confirm the Government’s right to make changes to student loan repayment terms.

This issue was raised by Wes Streeting, the Labour MP for Ilford North, who challenged the decision not to increase the repayment threshold for undergraduate loans in line with average earnings.

Instead the Government has left the threshold at £21,000 per year, meaning that graduates make greater repayments, in real terms: as salaries increase with inflation, a greater proportion of earnings goes to repay student loans.

This has been seen as a change in the terms of the undergraduate student loan. An attempt to introduce an amendment banning future changes was out-voted and the Government will, in principle, be able to make similar changes in future.

Does this matter to you as a postgraduate? Possibly. The Government has already committed to leave repayment rates for postgraduate loans as initially proposed (6% of earnings over £21,000 per year) until 2021.

As someone who’s spent a lot of time reading through the finer points of postgraduate finance policy, I'm confident that the Government is concerned with the affordability and practicality of its new loans. There’s evidence of that in the decision to reduce Masters and PhD loan repayment rates from 9 to 6% and to combine them into one deduction.

But we’ll keep on reading that fine print and do our best to keep prospective students informed.

So, until the next exciting higher education debate. . .