Memorandum 26
Submission from the WEA Maidenhead Branch
1. EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
1.1 We, as volunteers, organise part time
courses in our local town, Maidenhead, with tutors from Oxford
University Department for Continuing Education (OUDCE). Oxford
University is taking the fourth largest loss of grant (£4.1
million) as a result of the ELQ policy, and three-quarters of
that loss is in respect of its continuing education programme.
Faced with the magnitude and timing of the proposed funding reductions,
OUDCE tell us they will have to reduce their staff and cut back
on the range of courses they offer. They may even have to withdraw
from offering courses outside Oxford altogether—but if they
continued, they may have to charge a fee which was so high we
would be unable to attract sufficient students to make the course
viable.
1.2 Although purporting to phase out support
for students taking ELQs, the effect is to reduce the educational
opportunities for all adult students.
2. DETAIL
2.1 This year we have offered OUDCE courses
in Latin, Ancient Greek, two parallel neuroscience courses (The
Brain and Human Behaviour), two history courses (Makers of Modern
Europe and Irish history) and a course on Greek Myths. All the
courses are full with a waiting list. Most of the students, if
they have a degree at all, obtained it over 40 years ago but we
do attract younger students as well. As far as we know, most of
our students with degrees have worked all their lives and paid
taxes, the government funding that went into their degrees thus
having been paid back many times.
2.2 Everyone is expected to do some written
work and students get very enthusiastic about their chosen subjects.
The knowledge they gain feeds back to family and friends. A very
small proportion of our students go on to get a qualification
but most do it for the pleasure of learning and to keep their
minds active. Some are broadening and updating their knowledge
of subjects which they studied as a student; others do not have
a degree or are studying a subject which they dropped early in
the school days through specialising, for example, in science.
This is lifelong learning in practice and, if the government funding
cuts proceed, they will destroy it.
2.3 It will be administratively burdensome
for universities to distinguish between students with and without
degrees. There is no database of degrees but even if there were,
women who have married will have changed their names and it would
be of little value. In any case, as we understand it, the funding
allocation will be based on a historic estimate of students with
and without degrees in 2005—which undermines the notion
that this funding change is aimed at encouraging institutions
to attract more non graduate students.
2.4 OUDCE estimate that next year students
will have to pay a premium of about £20 over the current
price (currently £85 for 20 hours tuition)—and it will
be higher in future years. We cannot run a course with fewer than
11 students and if we don't get this number, students without
a degree will not even have the opportunity to start learning
in a friendly, local environment. For a paltry saving (in the
overall education budget) of £100 million, courses run by
university continuing education departments across the country
will be cut and a valued resource will be lost. Who knows how
much NHS money is saved by the social and mind-enhancing aspects
of these courses.
2.5 The fees the students pay now meet all
the direct costs of the course (the tutor, the room, the equipment
and local administration). Provided we get 15 or so students (and
some courses attract up to 25), the extra fees contribute to the
running of the central OUDCE organisation. However without government
or other subsidy, the central management structure could not exist.
3. CONCLUSION
3.1 We are continually amazed at the demand
for these more intellectually demanding courses and how much our
students get out of them. As organisers, we gain great satisfaction
from providing these opportunities locally. We are astonished
that the government is considering such a short sighted view of
the value of education and is not prepared to support the infrastructure
which makes the talents of Oxford University available to a wide
range of adults.
January 2008
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