A degree of profit

London said: " We would look at UCL becoming increasingly a postgraduate institution. That doesn't mean we would cut undergraduate numbers, but the business case means it would be foolish to expand home undergraduates and, if we can expand, our preference would be towards postgraduates. " Meanwhile many universities are carrying out a major restructuring of their research programmes, with serious consequences for some departments. Only the highest ranked departments are likely to win sufficient infrastructure funds to support leading-edge research. King's College London is to axe much of its life science provision partly because of a comparatively low rating in the last research assessment exercise. King's intends to reduce life science teaching and research in areas including biosciences, environmental sciences, environmental health and microbiology. A statement issued by King's says that while applications to biochemistry remain buoyant, both biological sciences and environmental sciences have seen a significant decline in numbers. Peter Cotgreave, director of the campaign group Save British Science, said: " This isn't a story about a university in the middle of nowhere that has been underfunded for years. King's is a university with an international reputation. " He warned that King's was setting a worrying precedent and placed struggling science courses across the country in a dangerous position. Other institutions are attempting to bolster their research strengths ahead of the next assessment exercise. Aberdeen universities. Allowing different universities to charge variable fees has long been part of the US higher education landscape and a key strategy to encourage universities to compete for student enrolments. Higher education functions in a complex and competitive market, where the price charged can vary from $1,000 to more than $30,000 a year. Under this pricing system, students are able to make tuition-fee levels a key part of their decision about which university to attend. But one of the lessons of the US system is that price competition can drive the overall averages higher, making access to higher education for low-income and minority students increasingly difficult, says Jamie Merisotis, president of the Institute of Higher Education Policy, Washington. " Public sector tuition fees have increased faster than the rate of inflation for more than 20 years, yet enrolments have continued to rise. The cost of attending a public university for four years is increasing more rapidly as a proportion of income for the poorest quintile of families compared with other income groups, " …