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Mapping Weak Signals

Inspired by: lawmakers/politicians » Growing privatisation of higher education

version: 3 / updated: 2010-12-13
id: #1252 / version id: #1242
mode: VIEW

Originally submitted by: Rafael Popper
List of all contributors by versions (mouse over)
Last changed by: Rafael Popper
WI-WE status:
submitted unpublished

Source of inspiration

Lawmakers/legislators

The source of the Weak Signal is

Ministers have voted for plans to allow universities in England to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year.

Signal's headline

(max. 9 words)
Growing privatisation of higher education

Signal's description

(approx. 150 words)
Please describe the Weak Signal (approx. 150 words)
As reported by the BBC, the UK government has pushed through plans to allow universities to charge up to £9,000 per year, raising the cap from its current level of £3,290. Universities wanting to charge more than £6,000 would have to undertake measures, such as offering bursaries, summer schools and outreach programmes, to encourage students from poorer backgrounds to apply.

Keywords

universities, fee, UK, bursary, schools, students

Mini-description

(max. 250 characters)
UK government has pushed through plans to allow universities to charge up to £9,000 per year, raising the cap from its current level of £3,290. Thus, the state withdraws its main role in education.

Signal's first apperance

2005-now

Signal's potential evolution

It could lead to...
issue type of issue/development potential impact on society timeframe for the issue to become at least 50% probable
#1 Significant reduction in the total number of students/applications per year new/emerging
 		mainly harmful
 		now-2015

Under what assumption the Weak Signal might evolve.

Nothing is done to revert the tuition increase decision

Importance

please specify
please select
Level 1: important for a particular country UK
Level 4: important for the whole world

Filters preventing the signal's monitoring

information/communicational filters (media/editorial interests, language, reasoning)
political filters (party or ideological interests)

Comments on selection:

Politicians will try to ignore the severity of discontent.

Key driving forces of this signal

Please use these boxes to provide up to 2 drivers of HIGH importance. Click on HELP to see examples:
Driver 1 Driver 2
Economic Efforts to cut costs

Major risks & opportunities associated to the signal

Please choose the most appropriate timeframe option(s) to which you would like to provide inputs.
Risks Opportunities
before 2015 less students
between 2015-2025 Emigration of young/talented

Potential stakeholders' actions

short-term actions
(now-2015) 		longer-term
(after 2015)
Media Inform the public.

Signal's relevance for European Grand Challenges

where? please justify:
particularly relevant Europe world
Ethics and abuse of S&T
Governance and trust in democracy
Innovation dynamics UK

Signal's relevance for thematic research areas

please justify:
particularly relevant
Social Sciences and Humanities

Pan-European strategies influencing the signal

please justify:
particularly relevant
Increasing the efficiency and impact of public research through Joint Programming (i.e. combining national and pan-European research efforts) or the optimisation of research programmes and priorities, for example.

Research-friendly strategies potentially improving understanding of the signal

For further information about 'research-friendly strategies' click here
please justify:
particularly relevant
Overcoming sub-criticality and systemic failures
To be subcritical means that the effort in a particular field or subfield lacks resources, equipment or a sufficient number of researchers to achieve a desired goal
Addressing cohesion through a localised articulation between supply and demand
(e.g. making research institutions more engaged with their own context and local users; reinforcing knowledge flows into and out of regions; etc.

Signal's relevance for future R&D and STI policies

Note: RTD = research and technology development; STI = science, technology and innovation
Less and economically-constraied students may become the norm across the UK