More Universities to Charge Maximum Fees

Last month we reported that Exeter University had announced it will charge the maximum of £9000 tuition fees when new legislation allows them to do so in 2012.

Since then, a growing number of universities have declared similar intentions. Indeed, with 21 universities now having declared their fees for the 2012-13 year, it is obvious that fees at a maximum level will be the norm rather than an exception. This is in complete contrast to the comments of David Willets, the government's universities minister, who said only last month that maximum fees would only be charged in exceptional cases.

The list so far can be found on the BBC news website. It includes eight out of the 20 members of the elite Russell Group, with the remaining 12 members still to declare.

All 8 of the second tier "1994 Group" universities to have declared will be charging maximum fees.

Only four out of the 21 who have declared will be charging less than the maximum, all of these being former polytechnics or higher education colleges.

All universities charging maximum fees will have to provide special provision for applicant students from poorer families and a system of bursaries.

We have covered the protests against the rise in tuition fees here. And if you are an A-Level student thinking about university, but worried about the increasing costs, we offer some words of advice.

If, as now seems possible, nearly all universities charge the maximum £9000 fees, there could be serious consequences for our entire education system. Firstly, the number of young people who can afford university will fall. With a limited number of bursaries on offer, there is a danger that the universities system will become accessible only to a privileged minority of the population, with students from low and average income families simply unable to afford it.

Secondly, the universities may suffer themselves if the number of applicants falls. With vastly reduced grants from central government, universities will have to take cold decisions about which departments are attracting the required numbers of students, with the remainder facing severe cuts or even closure.

Finally, these government plans may begin to look like a step too far for the country as a whole. Keeping students in education beyond sixth form is vital to the success of British companies and the wider economy. It also provides our young people with a valuable experience that they cannot get in the workplace.

Are these prospects a part of the fairer Britain the coalition government wanted to achieve when it took office?

A New Era in Super-Computing?

If you're looking for areas in which maths can be applied to the real world, look no further than computing and in particular the latest exciting advances coming from universities in the US.

At a meeting of the American Physical Society in Dallas, scientists from University of California, Santa Barbara have been demonstrating the latest steps on the road to a quantum computer.

A quantum computer, something that, as far as we know, has yet to be built, would be able to perform calculations on a scale that would vastly out-perform today's super-computers.

The UCSB device is one step along the road towards such a computer. It houses a chip containing 9 quantum devices, four of which are "quantum bits" or Qubits, which do the calculations. Later this year, the team hopes to increase the number of Qubits to 10. When scientists are able to increase the number of Qubits to about 100, they think the chip will be the basis of a viable, usable computer.

All of this opens the possibility that in the near future we'll have the power of today's super-computers on our desks, on our laps, even in our mobile phones.

For these developments, we owe a lot to Erwin Schroedinger, whose work on quantum physics and wave equation paved the way for the weird world of quantum mechanics.

At its heart, quantum computing depends on "super-position", which is the seemingly unnatural ability for a particle to be in two states at the same time. A particle spinning in one direction could be given a weak pulse of energy, which might be enough to set it spinning in the opposite direction, but maybe not. As long as the particle is not being observed or interacted with in any way, quantum physics says that the particle is in both states at the same time.

Now, we could use a whole line of these particles to represent the binary digits of a number. If a calculation is performed using a traditional computer, we would need to feed each number into the computer separately. But because a quantum computer can operate on particles in super-position, it can perform the calculation on all the possible combinations simultaneously. A number whose binary representation is 7 digits long is between 0 and 127. A traditional computer would need to do a calculation on each of these 127 numbers. A quantum computer could do them all at once.

But the power of quantum computing brings huge challenges for society. In fact, as things stand, a fully functioning quantum computer would jeopardise the stability of the world. This is because world commerce depends on the use of secure ciphers to protect and verify financial transactions. Additionally, many secure conversations between governments and government institutions are carried out using the same sets of ciphers. With the unimaginable computing power that quantum computing would bring, these ciphers, which we have previously considered unbreakable, would be rendered useless.

So the race is on: will the quantum computer arrive first, posing threats to international security and commerce? Or will a new quantum cryptography be developed first, securing transactions in a new unbreakable way? (It's another story, but such a form of encryption has already been shown possible over short communication distances. And it is absolutely unbreakable.)

Yesterday's science fiction really is tomorrow's reality.

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Exeter's Fees will be Maximum - Others to Follow?

Image via WikipediaExeter University has this morning announced it will charge the maximum of £9000 tuition fees when new plans allow them to do so in 2012.

Exeter joins a growing list of universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College intending to charge the highest rate, but it is the first university outside the elite Russell Group. If others in the second tier "1994 Group" declare similar intentions, it could be a sign that the government is going to struggle to keep fees to an average level of £7500, as planned. The government stated, when the plans were drawn up, that a level of £9000 would only apply in exceptional circumstances.

The announcement will mean Exeter will have to provide special provision for applicant students from poorer families and a system of bursaries.

David Willetts, the government's Universities Minister, has put himself on a collision course with the universities by stating that there is no reason arts courses should require fees of more than £6000 and scientific and medical courses £7500.

With the Russell Group universities, there is no doubt that setting tuition fees at the highest level is intended to signal exceptional quality. But the Exeter announcement appears to be a decision based purely on the university's finances. A spokesperson for Exeter University said that students would be expecting increases in the number of academic staff and better facilities. Since government cuts mean that the university is losing funding, it will need to increase its income in some other way. Students appear to be those who will pay.

Students at universities and FE Colleges, along with sixth form pupils, have all joined protests against the increases in tuition fees over the last few months. We have covered the student protests here. And if you are an A-Level student thinking about university, but worried about the increasing costs, we offer some words of advice.

Our feeling is that, with a growing number of universities announcing maximum fees, there will be serious consequences for the number of young people who can afford university. With a limited number of bursaries on offer, there is a danger that the universities system will become accessible only to a privileged minority of the population, with students from low and average income families simply unable to afford it. Universities may suffer themselves if the number of applicants falls. Are these prospects a part of the fairer Britain the coalition government wanted to achieve when it took office?