Increased student numbers

As I'm still a HE chaplain and hope to remain one by getting another job in the summer, this is still of interest to me. I'm interested to note that the figures for apllications from international students are pretty much in line with expectations. Of course the implication is even greater racial and cultural diversity in British universities [though places like Durham -if I'm interpreting correctly what I have recently been told on interview- have tended to be a bit tardy in getting into the market and are now playing catch-up]. It makes the case for chaplaincy stronger; a chaplain can be a helpful and effective agent of cohesion, hospitality and mutual interpretation. There are concommitant difficulties; funding issues arising from currency fluctuations, or simply opportunitsm which may mean that people arrive without their funding arrangements as 'specified' as they should be -it's almost impossible for an international student to get an income through part-time [or nigh-on full time] of £10,000 plus whilst simultaneously struggling through language barriers and the general necessities of study -I know; I've watched well-intentioned and hardworking people try and fail: it's heartbreaking becasue you also learn what this means to them and their families and sometimes also their communities and countries.

It's worth noting the increases in applications and enrolments [?] from Americans and Nigerians; this indicates to me that the need for Christian Chaplaincy is still important in a fairly direct judging-from-the-numbers sort of way let alone the 'honest broker' in welcoming and community-building.

The Foundation degree figures are rising too and as many of those are beling delivered in FE contexts it means that we really should be looking to how our FE chaplaincy side is doing too. This is not the time for the CofE to be pulling out of HE [and FE] chaplaincy. However it is doing so: my post is gone in July [with perhaps the temporary fix of two-day a week parish priest bussed in from elsewhere], Similarly with Huddersfield Uni. I've heard a few runours elsewhere of similar ... I don't doubt that there are financial problems but I know only too well from my own parish experience that it can be very hard to increasiingly time-poor clergy [time poor because being stretched thinner in terms of responsibilites both in scope and legislation] to carve out time and good-energy to face the extra-parochial challenges liek a chaplaincy role in a large secular institution where time sepnt may not produce much by way of increased money in the plate or bums on pews who may contribute when they graduate....