Uk University Vice Chancellors unhappy with the Government

News 09 10 2009: New students still without funding.

Up to 175,000 students (16%) in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />UK may still be waiting to receive their student loans and grants, a week after most courses started. The Student Loans Company (SLC) blamed late applications and technical problems while an early applying student complained of lost paperwork (Birth Certificate and a P60). While University Vice Chancellors demand their funding the Government and the SLC at an intermediate level argue over their problems. In the News (of 20 09 2009 (see below)) minutes of a meeting between the Gov and the SLC talk of “cuts” and “funding gaps” while the SLC admits to never applying for resources to answer all phone calls!. Interestingly the SLC also stated that it was waiting for confirmation on the attendance of tens of thousands of students at university before releasing payments.

 

Is it not time that the Government educated a Nation as to its army of accountants whom steer it such that others be in a better position to either be accountant “minded” or hire opposing accountants such to qualify needs properly as to those in need?. Obviously “common sense” has gone out of the window in that the Gov itself did not identify/question that the SLC needed resources to answer phone calls – and especially given thousands of Students in a state of worry as to their funding arrangements!. But this is the same Accountancy lead Government whom negotiated with Boeing the purchase of eight Chinook Helicopters that spent several years in a hangar by not being fit for purpose – not because there was anything wrong with them but because contractually the Gov never specified any right to be the holder of their “access codes” making them operational. Akin to spending Billion on a High Tech Secure Building and not having a key to gain entrance!. In throwing their toys out of the pram in being made fools of everyone else must suffer in being made equal fools yet the real losers are always the same people – that of taxpayers, their children, Societies and a Nation to which the face changes every 4 years but the methodology stays the same.

 

OLD News:

01 08 2009 Graduates to get gap-year money. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has confirmed that graduates struggling to get a job to go on trips abroad. According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters 48 graduates are chasing every 1 job on offer this year.

According to the Times, graduates must raise £1000, buy their own flights and cover the cost of vaccinations to be eligible.

18 08 2009 Students 'left with £23,500 debt'. Undergraduates now owe on average £5,000 for each year of study, according to a poll of 2,000 students in all years at university. The study also reveals students in England owe considerably more than their peers in other parts of the UK. Loans begin to be repaid after a student graduates and is earning more than £15,000.

20 09 2009 Student loan mess – The Government knew. The Government were aware of potential problems with the student loans system as early as 27th January, the Tories have claimed. Minutes show a senior Government official was at a Student Loans Company (SLC) Board meeting when the problem of funding gaps having an effect on services was discussed, and he advised the company it may need to make further cuts. Shadow universities minister David Willetts, who published the minutes, said they show the current delays were the result of a "toxic combination of bad Government guidance and shocking operational decisions".

The minutes reveal Les Campbell (SLC finance director) as saying that discussions were still ongoing between the SLC and the then Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) over significant budget gaps in what it required to what was being provided.

The minutes also show that SLC chief executive Ralph Seymour-Jackson told the Board the SLC had never applied for resources to answer all phone calls "and accepted that at peak times, service levels would worsen".The claims come as tens of thousands of teenagers are coming to terms with starting university without full funding. The SLC has confirmed that between 50,000-60,000 students may not receive their full funding when they start university.

News 09 10 2009: New students still without funds

Up to 175,000 students (16%) in the UK may still be waiting to receive their student loans and grants, a week after most courses started. First yearers have been hardest hit with just 72% of applications dealt with according to details given by the Freedom of Information Act. The Student Loans Company (SLC - non profit-making) blamed late applications and technical problems. Problems with new scanning equipment. University vice chancellors are unhappy and are pressing ministers for action. The Vice Chancellor of University of Central Lancashire, said: "The evidence we have is that the level of students who have not had any money is greater than in previous years. "We have had to make a number of emergency payments - about 250 - at a cost of about £70,000."; "We need an assessment of the scale of the problem,". The SLC also stated that it was waiting for confirmation on the attendance of tens of thousands of students at university before releasing payments while “lost data” by the SLC accounted for some Students whom face a fine for late payment of fees. One early applying student announces the loss of her Birth certificate and her Mothers P60.

This is the first year that first-time applicants have had to apply directly to Student Finance England for loans and grants and not via their local authority whom still handle 2nd, 3rd and 4th year continuations.

 

Other other News:

2001 EIGHT Twin-rotor Chinook Mk3 (special) transporters delivered & bought with intention to fly secret operations BUT night vision, navigation and range, failed to meet airworthiness standards – thus restricted to flying only in daylight and good weather. Aircraft GROUNDED on WHO should PAY to bring them up to Standard as prices soared by 70%. In being converted to Standard Aircraft their costs have more than doubled!. "The appalling decision to buy the aircraft without securing access to their software source code meant the MoD could not show that the helicopters were safe to fly. "It was bad decision making to the point of irresponsibility."

04 06 2008 MPs angered by Chinook 'cock-up'. Defence chiefs are being accused of a "gold standard cock-up" over the purchase of eight Chinook helicopters. The aircraft have yet to be put into service almost seven years later after they were delivered. A National Audit Office report said their cost had now almost doubled to £500 million.

25 08 2009 Helicopters use 'delayed for years'

It has always said the helicopters have not been able to be passed as fit for use because officials negotiating the deal to buy them did not ask for the access code for the software used to fly them and Boeing refused to hand the code over once the mistake was noticed.

But the Times reports the MoD never asked for the code because, under pressure from the Treasury, it told Boeing it planned to install its own software, thinking it could do so more cheaply.