Violent Student Protests Could Have Been Prevented
Worldwide, it has now been accepted, that Governments can and will no longer be able to meet the demand for Higher Education and increasingly the publicly funded institutions are linking up with private, for profit institutions. Private Higher Education Colleges, in conjunction with their UK University partners are able to be more affordable whilst not compromising on quality. The violent student protests could be attributed directly to the Government not having offered alternatives to the proposal, to lift university caps to £9,000.
London (PRWEB) November 12, 2010
What was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration, yesterday, turned the capital upside down when student demonstrators smashed through windows.
The violence broke out once the march reached the Conservative Party Headquarters, then the crowd stormed the building and created havoc.
Mr Brink Gardner, Executive Director of Blake Hall College, one of a number of private colleges in London who run degree courses for undergraduate and post graduate students, said that the protest and especially the violence demonstrated could possibly have been averted had the Government offered students a more affordable and viable alternative.
“Had this been done and alternative opportunities identified, I do believe that good sense could have prevailed.”
“What do you expect if you suddenly, seemingly curtail some student’s opportunity to go to university without flagging up the alternatives?” Mr Gardner said.
“Colleges in partnership with UK Universities are ideally positioned to absorb excess capacity students and deliver quality yet affordable tuition. Universities and Government should seriously rethink their strategy on tertiary education.”
As Allister Heath of CITYAM, quite rightly says today:
“There will be more two-year degrees and more distance learning; for-profit companies need to enter the market, which is currently controlled by charities. More innovation and experimentation is needed. Students should embrace, not fear, the current, tentative moves towards the commercialisation of higher education*. It is a shame yesterday’s protesters couldn’t see this.”
Mr Gardner continued that “Worldwide, it has now been accepted, that Governments can and will no longer be able to meet the demand for Higher Education and increasingly the publicly funded institutions are linking up with private, for profit institutions. We have ourselves apart from our UK University partners, now also linked up with other institutions in Thailand, India, Singapore and currently looking at further offers in India, Malta and South Africa”.
Private Higher Education Colleges, in conjunction with their UK University partners are able to be more affordable whilst not compromising on quality because
They are regularly inspected by the partner University, in order to ensure that they meet all the requirements of the QAA, to which the University needs to adhere to. They tend to specialise in courses where there is a higher level of demand They don’t have the huge infrastructural requirements of Universities They do not do research Their overhead is generally substantially lower than that of a University
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