Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
June 26
01:00
2012
26 Jun 2012
In response to the review of university-business collaboration by Professor Tim Wilson, David Willetts has announced new plans to strengthen that collaboration. This will include improvements to the regime for sandwich courses, promotion of a new framework for business and universities to work together, and ensuring a better fit between graduates and jobs.
The Governments plans include:
- Supporting the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) to create a National Centre for Universities and Business. The centre will focus on strengthening the strategic partnership between universities and business with a view to driving economic growth and recovery.
- Stimulating student demand for sandwich courses by instituting a 15 per cent cap on fees for a sandwich year. This more reasonably reflects the costs of a sandwich place year and will encourage universities to invest in and expand sandwich course provision.
- Extending the Graduate Talent Pool service for a further three years. This is a high-quality online resource that brings together graduates and businesses, and advertises internship vacancies, which now includes a strict quality assurance process.
- Working with graduate employers to promote fair recruitment and the use of new more detailed records of student achievement.