Further uni demand rises

A new report by the university minister David Willets has suggested that university places will need to increase by 26 percent across the UK in the next 20 years.

On The Today Programme Mr Willets said that the pressure we currently see on primary school places will have a knock-on effect on universities in the next two decades.

He also predicted that improvements in education will mean that more students will meet application standards.

Universities such as Warwick may have to expand to accommodate such pressure.

Spokesperson for Warwick University Peter Dunn expects that the University will be able to meet such demands but emphasises the fact that: “Warwick’s strategy is to focus on increasing its postgraduate research numbers, not its undergraduate numbers.”

This year, there were also difficulties with securing accommodation for postgraduate students.

First-year economics student, Edmund Robbins, saw the benefits of possible expansion.

“The more students we have, the more money the university has to invest.”

Yet other students were less sure about the advantages of expansion. An anonymous student told the Boar: “The University is running at 100 percent right now. Warwick University is so full, we don’t even have enough room for people to live here!”

In terms of the pressures upon Warwick’s accommodation, Mr Dunn commented on the issue.

“Every few years Warwick’s extreme popularity as a choice of university makes it challenging to meet full demand.”

However, he added that: “On every such occasion the accommodation office have met that challenge.”

The potential increase in students need not be a worry for Warwick students; according to Willets’ report, the future economy will be more geared towards graduates.

Willets’ vision of the UK’s future was of “well-trained people doing high quality well paid jobs”.

Willets’ paper follows the revolutionary Robins report of 50 years ago when just five percent of young people went to university.

Both papers called for the expansion of universities.

Willets’ paper is seen by some as the future of higher education in the UK.