An Insider’s Guide to Changes in British Universities

MyOxbridgeChoice opened for business just under a month after the formation of the coalition government but even before then we all knew that great changes were afoot in the way university funding would be operated, the exams system and the structure of British universities. The £3,200+ tuition fee, set by the previous government, and the associated terms that it would rise by no more than inflation, came up for review by Lord Browne in November 2009. The outcome of this review, despite all-party support, was always going to be contentious and with the advent of Vince Cable’s proposals for a graduate tax these are interesting times in the world of student finance and university admissions.

Whatever the results of Lord Browne’s review it seems guaranteed that university students and their families will continue to invest greatly as a result of the decisions they make about when and where they go to university and what they study. One of the reasons we do what we do at MyOxbridgeChoice is because we believe that significant investment warrants thorough research - pupils and parents don’t want to make financially life-changing decisions without easy access to all the information they need to make sure those decisions are right for them and likely to pay dividends in their futures.

With this in mind, Dr John Green, currently Chief Co-ordinating Officer at Imperial College London and previously Senior Tutor of a Cambridge College (and one of our founders) has agreed to do three guest blogs for us to give an insider’s view on the background to the changes we might see to the universities system, fees, graduate employment statistics and examinations. He’ll also examine the implications of those changes and the impact they may have on students and parents.

As always we are grateful for your feedback - we’d like to hear what students, parents, teachers and tutors think about what’s happening and how it has affected the decisions you’ve made or counselled. We’re especially interested to hear from previous Oxbridge applicants who’ve been rejected despite having the requisite grades or anyone who has considered studying overseas in order to avoid either the fees associated with British universities or the growing competition for places.