Can our Universities not do basic Maths?

[golach]

Have just read this today in my local paper, I would have expected that places such as Universities, would have a basic understanding of Maths and auditing, maybe I am expecting too much.


HERIOT-WATT University has been fined £327,000 for taking on too many students last year.

The university was the second-biggest offender in Scotland with almost 300 extra full-time places filled. The highest was Aberdeen, which was fined more than £ 1 million for taking on 800 extra students

[NickInTheNorth]

Don't know if it was the case with these particular incidents, but the extra places are usually given as a result of too many students that are given conditional offers getting the grades required and choosing to attend the particular university.

As you can imagine they offer more places than are available because they know they will not all be taken up. If they didn't then the courses would finish up under subscribed.

It's quite a difficult juggling act to get it right!

[RecQuery]

You'd be surprised how many people apply, are accepted, confirm the offer and then don't show up to matriculate for one reason or another. In my own frame of reference, my 1st year should have had double the amount of people from the class list but a good 50% just didn't matriculate and were removed shortly after.

[gollach]

When I started university, there were 40 students on my course at the beginning of our 1st term. By Christmas, only 31 were left. It must be hard for them to get the numbers right.

[oldmarine]

Have just read this today in my local paper, I would have expected that places such as Universities, would have a basic understanding of Maths and auditing, maybe I am expecting too much.


HERIOT-WATT University has been fined £327,000 for taking on too many students last year.

The university was the second-biggest offender in Scotland with almost 300 extra full-time places filled. The highest was Aberdeen, which was fined more than £ 1 million for taking on 800 extra students

Do the universities in Scotland/GB have a maximum number of students they can take in? Couldn't this be tricky to control with free scholarships as opposed to those who pay directly for their education? Appears to me this could be a difficult thing to control.

[Moira]

The answer, Golach, to your simple question, is complicated.

I think they all understand the basic Maths. The funding goes well beyond basic Maths however.

[golach]

The answer, Golach, to your simple question, is complicated.

I think they all understand the basic Maths. The funding goes well beyond basic Maths however.

Thank you Moira, what I cannot understand is how they can take on all these extra 1100 full time places and not know about them. 1million 327,000 pounds is an awful waste of money to be fined.

[Moira]

The question you posed is not a main concern of mine. If it is one of yours why not present the question to those who are actually in charge. That might help.

[ducati]

Presumably the 'fine' goes back the the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, so it is not wasted, merely redistributed.

[orkneycadian]

Can our Universities not do basic Maths? (http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?153890-Can-our-Universities-not-do-basic-Maths)

As I understand it, very few folk coming out of universities can do basic maths, or spelling, or arithmetic.....

[RecQuery]

I shouldn't be, but I'm amazed at the anti-intellectualism/anti-academia "I've got common sense" crap some people spout. I do think too many people go to university that shouldn't but that's a side argument.