Correspondents' Correspondence Cutting Classes
GELB, NORMAN
Cutting Classes London—The chill winds of austerity are blowing down the corridors of some of Britain's best known institutions of higher learning. As part of her anti-inflation program, Prime...
...Nor have warnings that several of the country's most prominent institutions are likely to find themselves in serious financial trouble aroused much official concern...
...Britain's home-grown university undergraduates will continue to have their tuition fully paid by the government...
...As part of her anti-inflation program, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has proposed cuts in public spending that include government subsidies for foreign students at British universities...
...For the London School of Economics, which has numbered among its alumni V. K. Krishna Menon and former Common Market Commissioner Ralf Dahrendorf—now the LSE's director—the prospects are bleak...
...Several of the threatened British colleges have launched campaigns to raise private funds in the effort to keep their coffers from being completely emptied...
...The vulnerable establishments include the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine—where foreigners now account for a staggering 74 per cent of the student body—and the internationally respected London School of Oriental and African Studies—where 35 per cent of the students come from abroad...
...Nevertheless, the LSE may have to trim some of its departments, and less well-connected institutions fear the necessity of more radical survival measures...
...Thatcher's economies.?Norman Gelb...
...Educational establishments are apprehensively considering the consequences...
...the size of the grant is determined by parents' net earnings...
...Fees would range from $4,500 a year for students of the humanities to $6,750 for science students and $11,250 for advanced students of medicine and dentistry...
...Still, some schools may be forced to close, the government's plan for scholarships to overseas research students "of outstanding merit" notwithstanding...
...It has been claimed that the lasting ties with Britain developed by foreign students during their education here more than compensates for the cost to the taxpayer...
...As for British graduate students, they will continue to receive substantial grants to help finance their studies, but they too are likely to be hurt by Mrs...
...For example, a "Friends of the LSE" group in the United States seeks to enlist the aid of such graduates as David Rockefeller and Paul Volcker in a drive to help make up an anticipated one-third drop in revenue...
...Foreigners have traditionally constituted about one-third of its student body, and it has always been proud of its cosmopolitan atmosphere...
...Their living expenses will also go on being subsidized by annual maintenance grants—up to $3,341 if they live away from home, or up to $2,216 if they choose to stay at home...
...But comparatively few outside applicants, it is felt, will be able or willing to pay the 20 per cent increase British universities would have to charge starting later this year...
...That argument has not persuaded many Tories, however (and it was wearing thin among the Labor-ites before they were swept from office last May as well...
Vol. 63 • January 1980 • No. 2
