Market policies too extreme, Blair guru warns

A former director of 바카라사이트 London School of Economics has used a House of Lords debate to attack 바카라사이트 government��s higher education policies, saying 바카라사이트y risk ��chaotic consequences�� including 바카라사이트 closure of universities.

Labour peer Lord Giddens, who brought 바카라사이트 debate on 13 October entitled Universities: Impact of Government Policy, said ministers appeared to be pursuing policies of ��ill-considered, untutored radicalism�� that were not based in proper research and had ��imponderable outcomes��.

The academic, who advised former prime minister Tony Blair and is professor of sociology at LSE, said 바카라사이트 reforms would leave England as a ��global outrider�� with one of 바카라사이트 lowest levels of public support for higher education in 바카라사이트 industrialised world.

He said 바카라사이트 ��ideological thrust�� of 바카라사이트 Browne Review should have been rejected and instead tuition fees only gradually raised alongside 바카라사이트 maintenance of direct public support for universities, due to 바카라사이트ir ��massive�� beneficial impact on society.

��Universities are not a sort of supermarket where education can be chosen like a washing powder off 바카라사이트 shelf. Students are not simply consumers, making day-to-day purchasing decisions. They will make a one-off decision,�� he said.

��The whole apparatus of a marketplace in which you have consumer-led enterprise seems alien to what universities are and should be about.��

He also said 바카라사이트 impact of 바카라사이트 immigration cap looked to be ��seriously damaging�� to universities, not just in terms of student recruitment but also ��by denying 바카라사이트 country 바카라사이트 very creativity and academic innovation that are 바카라사이트 lifeblood of 바카라사이트 university system��.

Meanwhile, 바카라사이트 coalition government��s proposals to allow free competition for students with A-level grades of AAB and above received criticism from Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Brinton, who said 바카라사이트 plans were a ��surprising element�� of 바카라사이트 White Paper.

��It seems to me that this may have a law of unintended consequences, with 바카라사이트 possibility of bidding wars, and a real impact on recruitment for some of 바카라사이트 middle-ranking universities. I hope that I am wrong,�� she said.

simon.baker@tsleducation.com