Universities scrap traditional courses

Universities are turning to media studies and computing at the expense of traditional academic subjects in an attempt to stave off a student applications crisis.

Universities are turning to media studies and computing at the expense of traditional academic subjects in an attempt to stave off a student applications crisis.

Official figures due out this week are expected to show that new universities are facing a collapse in demand which now threatens the Government's target of getting 50 per cent of school leavers into higher education by 2010. At present, around one-third of 18-year-olds go on to take degrees.

Luton University has announced that 98 staff face redundancies in "non-viable" subjects, with a £4m cut in courses including maths, technology, history and English. At Hertfordshire University, 79 staff are going in the same four subjects with chemistry lecturers being reduced from 14 to 3.

But the universities hope to recruit more students for degrees in business, computing and media-related subjects.

The latest figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service show that the numbers choosing "hard" subjects, such as chemistry and engineering, continue to fall. Yet media courses are booming.

The recruitment problems come after a decade of unprecedented growth in the university sector. In the past month alone, De Montfort University in Milton Keynes and the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside have announced they are to close campuses after a collapse in demand.

Even established universities are finding that business and media degrees are overwhelmingly popular. Leeds, for example, had 1,387 applications for 130 places on its communications studies degree last year.

According to the lecturers' union, NATFHE, new universities are becoming beholden to market forces. "While the old polytechnics cater for 60 per cent of all university students, they receive only 40 per cent of the total university funding," a spokeswoman said. "They have little choice."