Raymond's Accountants’ Post

Universities face cash squeeze from employer NI rise The tuition fee rise may have been a shock to students, but universities may not be better off because of employer’s national insurance and minimum wage increases Although the 3.1% increase in tuition fees from 2025 is set to cost each student £285 extra per year, the recent increase in employer national insurance contributions and 6.7% rise in minimum wage could still see universities ‘struggling financially’, said Tornike Asatiani, CEO of Edumentors. University leaders have repeatedly warned of significant financial concerns as a result of frozen tuition fees paid by domestic students and a fall in the number of international students. #University #NationalInsurance #Tutition #StudentLoan #Tax #NI #Minimumwage #Finances #Financial

Grim BBC article on the UK universities. Some universities were already in trouble this summer, and the budget has made it worse. Simple arithmetic: next year, an employee on the average UK salary will cost the employer an extra £1000 per year in National Insurance, while someone on the minimum wage will cost £800 extra. On the revenue side, every home undergraduate will pay an extra £285 per year. Many large UK universities have as many employees as undergraduate home students (or more), and everywhere else the ratio is high. Moreover, the projections seem to say the student numbers are decreasing (including the number of international students). https://lnkd.in/dvaDb6dC

#University cash crisis to get worse despite tuition fee rise, BBC told https://lnkd.in/eQxJSPSp The strain on this sector is further extenuated by the #NIC rise coming in too, together with increasing #NMW. It will be vital to plan carefully, looking at options to reduce costs from salary sacrifice to #car allowance, #TRONCs where employing #hospitality workers to digging deeper by looking into outsourcing options and data analysis Alan Frost Katie Sharpe Jim Boylan Robin Bailey Sue Kukadia Jane Gilmore

Following the Government's announcement on tuition fee increases and HE sector reform yesterday, we've summarised the highlights in this article. #highereducation #tuitionfees #DfE

'Corens said the repeated cost-cutting was sapping morale among staff and students. “These cuts are short-termist, short-sighted interventions that will have long-lasting effects and do nothing to tackle the actual structural financial challenges facing the sector,” she added.' Hell yes, Corens said that. And she stands by it. These cuts are individual universities trying to balance their books but in the process reducing their chance to adapt. None of them are a solution, they're just a continuation of the race to the bottom. Universities shouldn't be in competition they should be working together and UUK is manifestly failing at making that happen. Would also be nice if UUK would stop seeing staff as 'a cost', or even 'the enemy' and instead recognise we're part of the solution. We make the sector, we have experts in finance, is labour relations, in law, in imagining a different world. Give us the time, the tools, and the respect we deserve and we might actually be of use.

🔴 The new chancellor's decision to uplift school teacher pay by 5.5 per cent will not apply to college staff, in a decision described as "at odds with Labour's core missions", reports Anviksha Patel in FE Week. 💰 The pay rise will hand out £1.2billion in additional funding to schools, starting from September 1, but the Department of Education has confirmed that the recommendation will not be extended to college teachers. 🗣 David Hughes, CEO at the Association of Colleges, said that it was "disappointing" that additional funding was not found to mirror this pay rise in colleges. "The result is a no-change position for college finances and pay in the short-term." He called for discussions on practical funding solutions for colleges to be a "high priority" for the new government, as it "underpins their ambition for economic growth and fairness.” #furthereducation #colleges #pay #government https://lnkd.in/ehvk33aV

"Labour recognise the strategic importance of higher education – but the role Labour sees the sector playing and the role the sector wants to play are not necessarily in sync." SMF's Dani Payne in Wonkhe, on what universities can expect from a potential Labour government Read the article: https://lnkd.in/eWQKKech #universities #publicpolicy #ukelection #highereducation

There’s a big conversation coming about the utility of undergraduate qualifications in the UK. I had an NHS bursary for my degree and still it took over a decade to repay in full. Fees will next year be x3 the rate I part-paid. Put aside those degrees that translate into direct employability (which are few in number) and think about what we’re actually doing here. The cost of university education is, and has been for a while, a tax paid predominately by the young. They have no say in this policy until the age of 18 when it’s impact starts to become apparent. Maybe they come from a wealthy family and it’s fine. Maybe both parents work and they can scrape by. Most likely it’s a young person entering the job market saddled with debt, making sub-optimal decisions about their future. I can’t wait for us to really start talking about Higher Education and what it can achieve for people and the economy.

Everybody is waiting for the new UK government to come in and fix the UK higher education sector. This is going to be a monumental task, given that no serious change has been attempted in the last 15 years.  It looks like they are three basic strategies available, all of them with severe problems: 1) Find money to prop up a sector in dire need of funding. This money will then either be lacking elsewhere (NHS, infrastructure, pensions, schools, etc) or will come via increased taxes. Voters will not be happy. 2) Increase student fees or fee interest rates. This will not go down well with younger voters. 3) Keep universities declining. Then some will go bankrupt. This will look terrible, and the government will be accused of inaction. Voters will not be happy.

UK labour govt's increase of university tuition fees in England and Wales, from £9,250 to £10,500 per year over the next five years is welcome move to enhance financial sustainability of the universities. However, as a parent with school age children who aspire to enter university in 5 years time, I see significant affordability issues when it's extremely hard to save for future due to skyrocketing cost of living and shrinking wages for higher education staff in the UK! It is essential to balance the funding needs of universities with the economic realities faced by families. How other European nations manage free University education for their citizens? #tuitionfees #highereducation #ukeducation #studentfinance #affordability https://lnkd.in/eE24bh2f