A Study On British Higher Education Countermeasures Against Current International Financial Crisis

In 2008, an unprecedented financial turmoil caused by the US subprime mortgage crisis has swept the globe. It has brought huge impact on not only the world's financial system which is falling into difficulty of liquidity and the real economy which is affected to various degrees of trauma but also the higher education of whole world. The international financial crisis has affected the British higher education in many aspects:such as the financial input of government; the source of educational appropriations; the employment of graduates; the specialties and training of students and so on. The hardest hit on education may be reflected in the educational funding and graduate employment, while the most profound impact is in curriculum settings and the mode of teaching. The crisis makes people rethinking the current training mode in university or college:what kind of talents does society expect, and how to cultivate talents who are fitting for the development of our society?British Government attaching great importance to higher education in response to the current international financial crisis, which has seen higher education policy as an important component of stimulating recovery of economy. They have adopted a series of countermeasures which have achieved some success. British universities and colleges also have carried out a series of countermeasures for responding to financial crisis, in order to unleash the functions of higher education resolving the financial crisis.This thesis has the following six parts. The first part shows the Introduction which mainly analyses the change of world and the British higher education in the current international financial turmoil, and put forward the question, the content, methods and the objectives of this paper. The second part expounds the impacts of financial crisis on the British higher education from the following three aspects:higher education funding; the graduates employment and Coordination Training between school and enterprises. The impact of current international financial crisis on the British higher education focused on school funding and graduate employment. From third to five part of the paper elaborates separately the major policies of the United Kingdom in order for response to the current international financial crisis. From the increasing financial input to students; improving college financial management and expanding school funding four aspects, Part III of the paper introduces UK's fiscal policy to the financial crisis. On the one hand the Government has focal points in ensuring higher education which is in funding the staff and enterprises to participate in skills training. On the other hand universities and colleges can not rely entirely on the government, and they should expand their sources of funding by independent legal person status of the school. It is not a good way to increase funding for education by raising tuition fees in times of crisis. The fourth part shows the major policies of the British Government faced with the current financial crisis: University employment countermeasures. The British Government intends to become the world's leading countries, has taken many measures to promote employment and combined employment with education or skills training. The fifth part describes the British school-enterprise cooperation in skills training, which regards colleges as a major force in helping companies and people through difficult times aiming at response to the international financial crisis. On the one hand colleges provide intelligence support and training courses for business, on the other hand, business also must participates in the cultivation process of colleges. The sixth part of the paper is a summary part. The author from the relationship of higher education and the financial crisis, the factors of financial crisis impacting on higher education and the functions of higher education resolving the financial crisis summaries the experience of United Kingdom in replying the current international financial crisis, and proposes some basic suggestions of higher education countermeasures against the international financial crisis in China.