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Higher education white paper paves way for 85,000 university places to be opened up to competition Universities will compete against each other for a quarter of the students they recruit next year under government reforms unveiled on Tuesday, putting pressure on institutions to bring down fees. English universities will be granted the power to recruit unlimited numbers of the best-performing students. At present, universities have a fixed number of government-funded places for home undergraduates each autumn and are fined if they over-recruit. This limits competition between universities and denies some students their first choice. A competition based on strength of student demand and the pricing of courses will put pressure on institutions to bring down fees or focus sharply on improving quality. The higher education white paper allows institutions to expand to take on more students who achieve grades AAB or higher at A-level. The government estimates this will cover about 65,000 students next year. The shakeup also proposes creating a “flexible margin” of 20,000 places which can only be taken up by universities charging an average fee of £7,500 or less. Universities will compete for these places and the government says it will consult on the criteria for this competition. The combined effect of these changes will be to remove about 85,000 places – about one in four of the 350,000 new undergraduates – from universities’ central allocation and open them up to competition. This is likely to squeeze middle-ranking institutions that charge high fees as they will be unable to attract the best-performing applicants and also lose places overall. The universities minister, David Willetts, said the proportion would increase each year from 2012: “We tried in the first year to get the balance right between opening up the system without imposing too much turbulence. We want to go further every year.” Willetts said there would be “pressure for quality and value for money” on universities. The white paper allows employers or charities to sponsor extra places outside the government quota system. The government says these must have “fair access for all students applying, regardless of ability to pay” and rules out the possibility of individuals being able to sponsor extra places. The government is looking at extending the role of the Office for Fair Access (Offa), the watchdog which monitors university access for under-represented groups. Offa may get powers to instruct a university to spend more on access from its fee income and publish assessments universities that are failing to make sufficient progress against their access agreement. Ministers claim the package of reforms will give students more choice over where they study and strengthen their right as consumers to “get their money’s worth” from universities charging higher fees. Under the reforms, universities will be required to publish comparable information for prospective students on teaching hours and quality. Ministers are asking for the publication of detailed information about the employment and earning outcomes of specific degrees in order to name and shame courses that are not valued by employers. The government wants teenagers to have better information when choosing A-levels by asking universities to publish the qualifications of previously successful applicants. The Russell group, for example, favours traditional subjects: maths, English, geography, history, the three pure sciences and languages. Higher education University funding David Willetts Students Education policy Student finance Jeevan Vasagar Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk