Suspension Bridge Fireworks page 32
Brand’s Parklife page 49
Interstellar review page 44
Issue 280 Monday 24th November 2014 www.epigram.org.uk
It’s official: arts fund science degrees Epigram investigation: Bristol spends four times as much per Dentistry student George Robb Investigations Editor
Philip Bruland
Dept for Communities and Local govetnment
The revelations on funding per department expose the absurdity of arts students paying £9,000 a year
A Freedom of Information request conducted by Epigram proves what has been suspected for a long time: arts students at Bristol University are subsidising more expensive degrees. Around half of the £9,000 that most arts students pay in tuition fees each year is reallocated to other departments. Most of these departments are in the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medical & Veterinary Sciences. Of the £9,000 that Bristol undergraduates pay per year, the University only spends £3,347.14 on each student, with much of the rest going on subsidising degree programmes which are more expensive to run. And History students each have just £4247.95 spent on them. Such evidence shows that arts students’ tuition fees are used to compensate for losses made by departments that offer more expensive degrees, such as Dentistry, Chemistry and Veterinary Sciences, which spend between three and four times as much per student. Arts students contribute an annual net profit of over £10 million towards the University, which is used to subsidise departments such as Dentistry, Veterinary Science, Chemistry and Physics, which make losses, and fund research. The government’s trebling of tuition fees saw a large subsidy, which in some cases was as large as £6,000 per undergraduate each year, removed, with students expected to make up the shortfall. Epigram’s findings compare the £9,000 figure to how much is actually spent on them, which varies significantly between departments. The figures for Medicine were not included in the list provided. continued on page 3
Students ordered to pay council Greg Clark MP tax straight after finals interview page 3
completing their undergraduate degrees at Bristol and beginning their Master’s degrees. Typically, not many students are made aware by letting agents or landlords that they may be targeted by the council in this way. Many students are being forced to pay immediately after finishing their final exams, with the date in which students are deemed to complete their time at University differing depending on whether students began in Students are being hit with council tax bills between exams finishing and tenancy contracts ending 2011-12 or later. continued on page 4
Could UoB students soon be paying council tax all year round? page 4
Images Money
Minister for Universities and Science
Bristol final year students are being targeted by Bristol City Council to pay council tax just days after taking their last exam. Many are forced to pay between the end of the University term - usually the end of June - and the end of their tenancy contracts, with the logic being that young people are no longer students from the day they finish their degree programme. A number of students have also been sent council tax letters in the period between