London Metropolitan University faces £6m over-recruitment fine

A London university is facing a fine of just under £6m for over-recruiting UK undergraduates this year.

London Metropolitan University says it recruited 1,500 more students than it should have done, partly because of the rush for places last summer.

It received a letter from England's higher education funding body Hefce this week saying it would be fined £5.9m.

That is more than twice the highest fine imposed last year.

The magazine Times Higher Education is reporting that some believe as many as 25,000 students will have been over-recruited in this way, meaning there could be record fines this year.

Universities in England have to pay roughly £3,700 for each student they take above a set number they have been told they can take.

Last year Hefce imposed fines of just over £8.5m in total.

The largest (£2.2m) was against South Bank University, also in London.

This year's fines will be published by Hefce at the end of March.
'Take it on the chin'

London Metropolitan's Vice Chancellor Malcolm Gillies wrote to staff this week to explain what had happened.

He said London Met was one of "many" English universities which had unintentionally over-recruited during a rush for places ahead of the increase in tuition fees for many students in the UK.

The university had been seeking to fill up half of its places through Clearing - the system which matches vacant university places to applicants who generally either apply late or do not get the grades they need for their first choices.

Prof Gillies said: "Because of the volatility of admissions in 2011-12 during Clearing, many English universities unintentionally over-recruited.

"Universities have an obligation to accept students in particular categories. We have always been a big university for Clearing and we are proud of that, of giving an opportunity to students," he told the BBC News website.

"There was a large rush through the gate at the last minute. But we greatly exceeded our number so we have to take it on the chin and recognise that we have an obligation to reach our target and we will have to revise our system."

Prof Gillies said that because the university would receive tuition fees [more than £3,000 a year this academic year] from the extra students it had taken on, this would offset much of the fine.

The net cost of taking on the students would be £700,000 he said.

The government has said over-recruitment is putting extra unexpected pressure on its finances, because of the cost of supporting students with tuition fee loans and bursaries.
UK picture

From this autumn, students from England attending universities in any part of the UK will pay tuition fees up to a maximum of £9,000 a year.

The government has been encouraging universities to charge fees of less than £7,500 by offering extra places to those which do.

Fees at London Met range from £4,500 to £9,000 a year, with an average of £6,850.

Students from Scotland who study at universities in other parts of the UK will also pay fees at this level, although Scottish students who stay in Scotland will continue to pay no fees.

Students from Wales will be subsidised by the Welsh government wherever they study in the UK and will pay no more than the present level of fees.

Fees for students from Northern Ireland who stay there to study are being frozen at present levels, but those who study in other parts of the UK will pay fees of up to £9,000 a year.

NEWS BY:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17067132

Education Divisions Boost McGraw-Hill and Pearson Earnings

Two of the biggest players in education publishing had good news to report in their most recent earnings filings, even though McGraw-Hill (MHP) supplied more tangible information than its U.K.-based competitor, Pearson (PSO).

McGraw-Hill Sees Strong Gains in Education Division

For its third quarter, McGraw-Hill's profit rose to $380 million, or $1.23 a share, from $336 million, or $1.07 a share in the year-earlier period -- a 15% increase from the same time last year and way above analysts' expectations of $1.10 EPS. Total revenue grew by 5.5% to $1.98 billion, also beating analysts' projections for the company.

On the education side, revenue jumped 5.5% to $1.1 billion while operating profit grew 19.9% to $357.5 million. That took into account a $3.8 million pre-tax gain on the divestiture of a secondary school business in Australia, while foreign exchange had negligible impact this quarter, a far cry from previous earnings periods.

Looking at specific education segments, revenue for the School Education Group increased by 6.7% to $534.7 million compared to the same time last year, while the higher education side went up 4.3% to $520.0 million. The School Education Group is now on track to capture 30% of the estimated $825 million to $875 million state new adoption market in 2010, owing in large part to substantial orders from the adoption states with the biggest student enrollments, such as Texas, California, and Florida.

Good news also came from the Standard & Poor's side, as that division's revenue increased 9.5% to $697.4 million compared to 12 months ago. The biggest reason? High-yield debt issuance.

As for information and media, Q3 revenue declined by 4.7% to $227.8 million compared to the same period last year, but it would have increased 5.1% if not for lingering residue from the sale of BusinessWeek to Bloomberg. Operating profit for this division also increased by 55.1% to $45.8 million in the third quarter.

In a statement, Chairman, CEO and President Harold McGraw III attributed the earnings jump to a slew of factors, including "surging global high-yield issuance in the bond market, a solid gain at S&P Indices, increases in U.S. elementary-high school and higher education in the seasonally most important quarter of the year, double-digit increases in the sales of digital products and services in higher education and professional markets, and global growth in energy information products."

Looking ahead, the company is bumping up its guidance, now anticipating earnings per share somewhere between $2.60 and $2.65, even with a one-time gain of 2 cents EPS from recent acquisitions.

Pearson Finds Success in Move to Global Learning Technology

As for Pearson, its nine-month trading report was thin on numbers and long on percentage-driven positive news. Overall, the company increased sales by 7% and adjusted operating profit 15% in the first nine months of 2010. Its trade book publishing arm, Penguin, saw revenue grow 5% compared to last year, and the education side increased 7% from 12 months ago. That piece of news caused Pearson to remark that it continues "to accelerate our transformation from book publisher to the leading global learning technology and services company through organic investment and bolt-on acquisitions."

An 11% jump in revenue for the Financial Times came about because of "strong demand for its print and digital content," increased M&A activity and sustained advertising growth. For Penguin, Pearson noted that "physical retail markets are tough," but they were offset "by strong publishing and rapid growth in eBook sales" for 16,500 titles currently available. Industry newsletter Publishers Lunch ran the numbers, and for e-books that means "if Penguin ebooks went from 8.5% of U.S. sales after two quarters to 10% of U.S. sales in the third quarter, that would comprise revenue of approximately $4 million."

In other words, as is the case for almost all big publishers right now, e-books are growing, but the story is still small potatoes compared to larger sectors like education -- and print publishing as a whole.

This post has been edited to correct various figures. The original numbers cited for Standard & Poor's revenue referred to the Credit Market Services Division, while the overall operating profit grew 19.9%, not 9.9% as originally cited. 

NEWS BY:http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/26/mcgraw-hill-pearson-earnings/

UK students switch to US universities

Within four years, a quarter of sixth formers at a leading UK independent school will be heading for universities in the United States.

That's the prediction of Anthony Seldon, head of Wellington College in Berkshire.

Dr Seldon, one of the UK's most prominent head teachers, says that ambitious teenagers are looking further afield than ever before in their university choices.

The lure of well-funded US universities, with more broad-based course options, is proving increasingly attractive to youngsters in the UK, he says.

At a recent talk with pupils, he said that about 40% claimed to want to go to US universities, with the expectation that many of these will actually go on to enrol.

This surge in academic wanderlust reflects the experience of the Fulbright Commission, which promotes educational links between the US and UK.

The level of interest is "rising sharply" this year, says commission director Lauren Welch.

They were taken aback when 4,000 students turned up for a US university recruitment fair in London last month - double previous years.

When admissions figures are known in the new year, she expects a spike in applications.

The most recent figures, from this autumn's intake, saw big increases in applications from students in the UK to universities such as Harvard, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania.

Students wanting to apply to US universities can take the SAT common entrance test in the UK - and the College Board which runs the test reported a 30% increase in such UK candidates.

The introduction of higher tuition fees at UK universities, up to £9,000 per year, is pushing students to think much harder about their options. It's also changing the balance of what is affordable.

Dr Seldon says that universities in the UK are going to have to take more care about what they're offering in terms of contact hours, subject options and pastoral care. The competition is now global.

He says that for the price of UK fees, students are being offered courses in Hong Kong, with change for the air fares home. There are also pupils looking at universities in Canada, Australia, China, South Africa and in continental Europe, he says.
Budget Harvard

The headline price of US universities can be dauntingly high - the top bracket are above $50,000 (£32,000) per year - but this is often offset by high levels of means-tested financial support.

Harvard spokesman Jeff Neal says the university has seen growing numbers of students from the UK and that families with "low and middle incomes will likely pay no more to send their students to Harvard than to a UK university".

From next year, students at Harvard from families earning below $65,000 (£41,000) per year will not have to pay any tuition fees.

The most competitive US universities, hungry for the most talented students, recruit from around the world, with means-tested support available.

So what's it like to go from a school in England to an Ivy League institution?

Jason Parisi, from Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, has started this term at Yale and talks enthusiastically about his experiences.

He says he was drawn by the quality of the course on offer, and the belief that the international experience would give him an advantage in the jobs market when he returned, marking him out from the rest of the graduates.

NEWS BY:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15963688

Merger to create new university for Scotland

Scotland is a step nearer having a new university following ministerial approval to merge an existing higher education institution and further education college.

Unless any Scottish MPs lodge an official objection to the plan in the next 21 days, which is thought unlikely, then the proposal to join Paisley University with Bell College to create a new university will go ahead on August 1.

The merger will for the first time bring a university to Lanarkshire in the west of Scotland and create the largest school of health, nursing and midwifery in Scotland. A name for the new higher education institution has yet to be decided but there is already a proposal on the table to call it the University of the West of Scotland.

Alex MacLennan, the principal of Bell College and vice-principal designate of the merged institution, said: "Having a university presence in Lanarkshire is hugely important for the area and this announcement brings us one step closer to making this a reality.

"[The] merger will reap tremendous benefits for us, opening up higher education opportunities for many more thousands of people across the west of Scotland. It will give us the opportunity to offer a wide choice of high quality, career-focused programmes from a new and distinctive regional university with strong international links."

His enthusiasm for the new university was shared by the principal designate of the merged institution, Seamus McDaid, currently principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Paisley.

He said: "We aim to have a transformational influence on the economic, social and cultural development of the west of Scotland through the provision of high quality, inclusive higher education and innovative applied research.

"The merger is good news for both the University of Paisley and Bell College as it will permit us to engage in developments of a scale that we could not have done as independent organisations."

Spotlight on Faculty Member Wayne Lewis

Q. What do you love about the College of Education?

A: I have been with the College of Education about two years now and more than anything, I love working with my students. I am an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership Studies and a Co-Director of the Education Policy and Law Lab, and more than just being hardworking students, they are wonderful people. They bring varied experiences to their graduate programs, but share the element of total commitment to improving learning for children in Kentucky and I feel extraordinarily privileged to work with them.

Q: What did you do before working here?

A: Immediately before coming to UK, I was a doctoral student at North Carolina State University. At NC State I also worked as a graduate research assistant in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and taught a foundation of education course for undergraduate pre-service teachers in the College of Education. Prior to that, I was a middle and high school teacher in public school districts in North Carolina and Louisiana.

Q: So where are you originally from?

A: I am originally from New Orleans, La.

Q: How did UK come into the picture?

A: My colleague Justin Bathon and I have a mutual friend, Kevin Brady at North Carolina State University where I did my doctorate. Kevin served on my dissertation committee and knew through Justin that the Department of Educational Leadership Studies at UK was recruiting for a position. I gave Justin a call that evening. We were actually headed to the same conference the following day in Orlando, so we met there and talked. From there things moved pretty quickly. I came to campus to interview two weeks later. It was pretty clear that UK was going to be the right fit for me.

Q: Do you have any hobbies?

A: I am a saxophonist. I have been reading music almost as long as I’ve been reading words. It is kind of hard not to get into music growing up in New Orleans. I picked up the saxophone in early elementary school. I started playing talent shows, and then local New Orleans clubs and second lines at about 14; first with the Ace of Spades Brass Band and later with the Lil Stooges Brass Band. I had the opportunity to attend St. Augustine High School and play in the marching, symphonic and jazz bands. I then went on to attend Loyola University in New Orleans where Jazz Studies was my major.



NEWS BY:http://education.uky.edu/news/faculty-staff-spotlights/Wayne-Lewis