Mystery benefactor could provide university funding solution

Friday 13 January 2017

A mystery benefactor could help provide a solution to the ongoing debate over higher education funding, the Minister for Education has said.

In a Scrutiny Panel Hearing this morning, Deputy Rod Bryans outlined how a philanthropist had offered to establish a bursary fund for the Island’s brightest students that might otherwise be excluded from accessing top institutions through their economic background.

Speaking after the hearing, Deputy Bryans told Express that the anonymous individual had contacted the Department for Education shortly after Christmas around which time a Higher Education subcommittee had just been formed.

“I was told this chap had come forward and had an idea and, “could we very quickly get in touch?” And I said, “of course.” So I went along and it was described to the Chief Minister, the Treasury Minister, myself – unfortunately Deputy Pryke wasn’t there, [and] she’s part of the subcommittee as well – my Chief Officer, and my Finance Officer. We sat and we listened to this individual, and he told us what he was contemplating.”

“Prior to Christmas, myself and the Treasury Minster independently had been coming up with the idea of a bursary situation which would benefit those people who were academically in line... Then this philanthropist came in, and coagulated into that one situation.”

At yesterday’s Scrutiny Hearing, Deputy Andrew Lewis and the Student Loans Support Group (JSLSG) had advocated for the establishment of a student loan fund similar to the one currently used in the UK. 

But the Minister for Education said that the price of payback would act as a “deterrent” to new students – a direct contrast to the survey evidence presented by the JSLSG last night.

He was in favour of a “blended situation” to remedy higher education funding issues: a mixture of sticking with the current £1,500 yearly student loan available from NatWest, looking into bursaries for young elite minds, creating strategic partnerships with European universities like Caen and Maastricht, and further promoting the tertiary education options available such as the Department for Health and Social Services’ Nursing qualification and University College Jersey (Highlands) degrees.

Pictured: Highlands, the site of University College Jersey, which offers degree courses in conjunction with UK universities.

Take-up of the latter, however, had been blighted by a “culture of snobbery”, which didn’t reflect the quality of its educational offering – ranging from BA Business and Management to BSc Social Sciences.

Deputy Bryans said that work had already begun to challenge this perception.

“It’s all to do with communication, and the shift has already begun. I’ve been contacted by three girls in particular… who had said to me, “We were in a particular default situation where we had to go to to Highlands. Now we’ve got there, we thought it was fantastic, can you amplify that?” And I said, “Okay, this is going to be a two-way street… There’s a couple of things I’d like you to work on. Can you give consideration to a student union? Can you get a couple of people together who feel like you? And let’s start working together to actually raise that awareness.”” 

While the potential millionaire donor is currently away, the Minister says that negotiations will continue “as soon as he gets back.” 

“We’ve only received some of the details so far so we’ll have to look further into it, but this is a great example of the community suddenly looking at us and realising this is an island-wide project or problem and willing to step up and help us sort it out.”