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12th-18th October 2012 Vol. 77. Issue 1415. www.redbrick.me
Osborne visits campus as questions asked over student intake
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, visited campus on Tuesday to announce the creation of a new £60m high temperature research centre in conjunction with Rolls Royce. The visit comes amidst rising concerns that several leading Russell Group universities, including the University of Birmingham, have been affected by the coalition’s ‘AAB’ policy. The policy was designed to encourage a free-market approach amongst universities, giving them the chance to recruit as many A-Level candidates as possible with grades better than AAB, but numbers due to be released in early November suggest that several universities have struggled to fill their courses. It also
comes amid reports published recently on the Times Higher Education website that UCAS had warned the coalition of the potential dangers of the policy. The rise in tuition fees, coupled with a pronounced drop in A-Level grades, is widely thought to have contributed to the problem, with universities not subsequently able to recruit outside their ‘AAB’ quota, leaving resulting vacancies on courses. One Russell Group university anonymously reported that they had fallen short of the quota by 160 places; another reported that they were 260 places short. Redbrick will gain access to the figures about the University of Birmingham when they are released in early November.
30,076 Fall in the number of students accepting places at English institurions compared to September 2011
£700m Estimated cost to institutions in lost funding over three years
7.9% The percentage of exams awarded A* grade, a fall from 8.2% from the previous year
Source: The Times Higher Education, Data as of September 2012
Claire Harris on a fuelling controversy page 21
Science&Tech
Anita Baumgärtner reviews Taken 2, page 26
Arts
Harriet Henderson & Jemimah Shaw review Hairy Bikers, page 23
Film