Even on its own terms, the policy is failing as figures released this week by the universities' funding council show.
Responding to last year's under-recruitment and in a bid to give universities more confidence in offering places, the Hefce funding council is allowing universities a wider margin for over-recruiting, before they face financial penalties.
Mr Lampl, who is an adviser to Education Secretary David Blunkett as well as the Higher Education Funding Council, said universities should now do their own follow-up studies.
But because of a high drop-out rate, and its failure to meet student recruitment targets, South Bank has been obliged to cut academic jobs, and give back some of its grant to the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the primary government funding agency for universities.
The funding council has already told universities they will not use this year's shortfalls in general to limit places for next year.
Universities currently get their public funding through the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (Hefcw).
The Scottish Funding Council is to announce its budget for universities in March.
The project is being developed in conjunction with teams at Warwick and Edinburgh universities with funding from the Swindon based Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
It said that following a Wales Audit Office report in 2009, the assembly audit committee - the predecessor to the public accounts committee - concluded the Welsh government and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales needed to encourage better collaboration with universities.
The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) funds teaching and research in universities and colleges in Wales.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) funds teaching and research in universities and colleges in England.
应用推荐