(UK) New private universities risk a ‘catastrophe’

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/20/tory-plan-worthless-degrees

Lower standards, as a result of reforms, will harm UK’s reputation, says leading academic

New private universities risk a ‘catastrophe’
Rebecca Ratcliffe
Saturday 19 March 2016 20.09 EDT

A government adviser and crossbench peer has warned there could be an “American-style catastrophe” in English higher education if ministers push ahead with plans to expand opportunities for private providers to become universities.

Alison Wolf, professor of public sector management at King’s College London, said a change to legislation could damage the UK’s reputation for higher education and leave students at risk of using student loans to buy worthless degrees.

“Sweeping general legislation might make it easier to set up a really small, innovative, educationally wonderful institution, but it’s much more likely to mean we end up with the American-style catastrophe,” said Wolf. “I think we’ll have those [poor quality] colleges on a much greater scale, and I think they’re going to recruit all over Europe because that’s the obvious place to get your huge numbers,” she said.

“All the evidence is that when you take off the cap and you write a blank cheque from the government you get dramatic expansion, and if you also make it easy for for-profit institutions to pile into that space the expansion will be even greater. We’ve already got a situation where the cost of student loans that are not going to be repaid is spiralling.”