UK lagging behind in funding, class sizes and staff investment

The OECD's annual report, Education at a Glance, ranks the UK joint 17th with Poland out of 22 countries for its student:staff ratio. The UK had a student:staff ratio of 18.2:1, compared to a 15.8:1 OECD average; 15.7:1 for the US; 17.3:1 for France and 12.2 for Germany.

It also reveals that the UK came 22nd out of 27 countries in terms of proportion of current higher education spending going on its staff. Public spending on higher education as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lower in the UK than America and lower than the OECD and European averages.

Since 1995 overall public investment in higher education in the UK has increased approximately at half the rate of the OECD average, and also at half the rate of investment in our schools.

Public spending on higher education as a percentage of GDP:

• United States 1.0
• OECD average 1.0
• European average 1.1
• United Kingdom 0.8

Commenting on the report, UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'The UK cannot afford to be left behind when it comes to funding our universities. Yet we are investing considerably less of our GDP than competitor countries, we have some of the highest class sizes in the world and are investing minimal amounts of money earmarked for higher education on our staff.

'If we are to maintain a world class higher education system we have to stop kidding ourselves we can do it on the cheap.'