Assessing the impact of the 2010 Browne Review and the 2010 Amendment to the Higher Education Act 2004 using Nottingham Trent University as a case study
type: CreativeWork
description: The 2012/13 academic year saw the introduction of the most significant changes to the funding of higher education in England for over fifty years. This followed the publication of the Browne Review in October 2010 (Browne, 2010), which recommended that the cap on tuition fees be removed and that universities be allowed to charge fees that they felt were appropriate. It further recommended that the funding of England’s higher education system shift away from one that is largely funded by the taxpayer to one that is, for the most part, funded privately by graduates from their future earnings. The subsequent government White Paper published later in 2011 incorporated some features of Lord Browne’s recommendations: loans would be offered to all students to cover fees, to be repaid only when graduates were earning over a certain threshold. However, the government proposed an absolute cap on fees of £9,000 per year. Those universities charging fees of over £6,000 per year would be obliged to contribute to a national scholarships programme, and there would be a tougher regime of sanctions encouraging these universities to widen access. These new measures were challenged at the time from a variety of sources: politicians, the press and academic research all suggested that this change in funding would ostracise students who came from backgrounds that did not traditionally access higher education. Two years after the introduction of higher fees, this thesis investigates whether there has been any change to the nature of the student demographic accessing Nottingham Trent University (NTU). For some, going to university is seen as a method of ensuring social mobility, so if there is any change in the demographic of the student accessing university following the change in funding, this could have a far-reaching impact across the whole of society. Additionally, given that universities are now increasingly run as businesses as well as places of learning, any changes to the student …
abstract: The 2012/13 academic year saw the introduction of the most significant changes to the funding of higher education in England for over fifty years. This followed the publication of the Browne Review in October 2010 (Browne, 2010), which recommended that the cap on tuition fees be removed and that universities be allowed to charge fees that they felt were appropriate. It further recommended that the funding of England’s higher education system shift away from one that is largely funded by the taxpayer to one that is, for the most part, funded privately by graduates from their future earnings. The subsequent government White Paper published later in 2011 incorporated some features of Lord Browne’s recommendations: loans would be offered to all students to cover fees, to be repaid only when graduates were earning over a certain threshold. However, the government proposed an absolute cap on fees of £9,000 per year. Those universities charging fees of over £6,000 per year would be obliged to contribute to a national scholarships programme, and there would be a tougher regime of sanctions encouraging these universities to widen access. These new measures were challenged at the time from a variety of sources: politicians, the press and academic research all suggested that this change in funding would ostracise students who came from backgrounds that did not traditionally access higher education. Two years after the introduction of higher fees, this thesis investigates whether there has been any change to the nature of the student demographic accessing Nottingham Trent University (NTU). For some, going to university is seen as a method of ensuring social mobility, so if there is any change in the demographic of the student accessing university following the change in funding, this could have a far-reaching impact across the whole of society. Additionally, given that universities are now increasingly run as businesses as well as places of learning, any changes to the student …
author: Jarvis, G
language: en
date published: 2014
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:30:52Z
provider: Nottingham Trent University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Nottingham Trent University