Le "white paper" de la politique universitaire anglaise est public : l’étudiant est un marché - Revue de presse (juillet 2011)

Le "white paper" qui précise la politique universitaire du gouvernement est maintenant public, et reprend les points mentionnés dans les messages précédents. Le titre, "Higher Education : Students at the Heart of the System" (Enseignement supérieur : l’étudiant au coeur du système), évoque une langue de bois maintenant très répandue.

Il est de plus très clair que le gouvernement britannique envisage très sérieusement de vendre les prêts étudiants sur les marchés financiers, et une étude de faisabilité est en cour, qui devrait aboutir plus tard dans l’année.

cf paragraphe 1.40 a 1.43,
http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/58879994

et en particulier,

1.42.
The Government has tasked Rothschild to lead a feasibility study to assess the options for how to monetise the loan book. The feasibility study is considering a full range of options, including retaining the loans on the government ?s books,selling them outright to financial investors, or selling loans to one or more regulated companies set up to manage the loans.

1.43.
Rothschild is currently finalising the feasibility study and further detail on whether and how Government will proceed with the monetisation of ICR loans will be set out later in the year.

Une campagne pour un "white paper" alternatif a cependant été lancée, c’est la "campaign for the Public University" :

"Academic staff and students from across the sector and in a variety of campaigning groups – Campaign for the Public University, Oxford University Campaign for Higher Education, Sussex University Defends Higher Education, Warwick University Campaign for Higher Education, Humanities Matter, No Confidence Campaign, Cambridge Academic Campaign for Higher Education – have written a trenchant response to the Government’s White Paper.

This document, Putting Vision Back into Higher Education : A Response to the Government White Paper, is a call to colleagues to contribute to an Alternative White Paper to be published at the end of the Government’s consultation period in September. This will be presented to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, together with the weight of opinion in support. We are now asking colleagues to contact their subject associations, and other bodies, to contribute, and to join together themselves to provide evidence for an alternative. An email address is given below and we ask people to send their contributions to us for collation in an Alternative White Paper by 2 September 2011 to align with the Government’s consultation deadline of 20 September.

In the critique of the White Paper, we argue that :

It threatens the excellence of higher education in England. It does not put the student at the ‘heart of the system’, but the market.
It cuts direct public support for undergraduate degrees by 80%, and by transferring costs to students via higher fees it succeeds in providing fewer resources for most degrees while requiring students to pay more.
It is a reckless gamble, a dangerous experiment in university funding with no precedent in British experience. Its different elements are incoherent.
While the Browne Review advocated a new funding model because of uncertainty over public funding, the present proposals will not produce stability. The uncertainty is switched to the ballooning student support arrangements necessary to maintain a fee-based system of loans and the Government’s overriding interest is now to reduce their cost."

Pour lire la fin