New private university signals drive to privatise higher education in Britain

[Hannah Bell]

BPP, a private company that possesses 14 sites around the UK providing law and business degrees, was granted “university college” status in July, creating the first private university in the UK for 30 years. The decision signals the coalition government’s drive to privatise higher education.

Massive spending cuts brought forward by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government, combined with rising youth unemployment, has seen 200,000 students denied a university place this year. It is in this context that calls have been made to privatise higher education.

Until now university college status has been typically reserved for publicly owned institutions that provide a limited range of degrees and qualifications. Before the BPP granting, the University of Buckingham has been the only official private university in the UK, which was granted degree-awarding powers in 1983.

The vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, Terence Kealey, claimed that “state-funded universities have been so battered that they are reeling…step forward our private schools”.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/priv-a14.shtml

[msongs]

1. first starve public schools then privatize them? race to the top comes to UK nt