Does Dearing still matter

1
(No Transcript)
2
Does Dearing still matter?

• AUA Planning Forum
• University of Manchester
• 31 October 2007
• David Watson
• Centre for Higher Education Studies
• Institute of Education

Institute of Education University of London 20
Bedford Way London WC1H 0AL Tel [phone]
6000 Fax [phone] Email
info_at_ioe.ac.uk Web www.ioe.ac.uk
3
The spirit of the times, 1996-97

• UK HE since 1979
• Contraction, expansion and consolidation
• The end of the binary line
• Territorial devolution
• Under-funding
• Top-up fees

4
The National Committee of Inquiry into Higher
Education

• Terms of reference
• To make recommendations on how the purposes,
  shape, structure, size and funding of higher
  education, including support for students, should
  develop to meet the needs of the United Kingdom
  over the next twenty years, recognising that
  higher education embraces teaching, learning,
  scholarship and research.

5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
Four big ideas

• Contribution of higher education to lifelong
  learning
• Vision for learning in the twenty-first century
• Funding research according to its intended
  outcomes
• The compact

9
The Dearing Report key messages

• Expansion
• Quality and Standards
• ICT
• Restore short-term funding
• Professionalism in teaching
• New funding for research
• The graduate contribution (1,000) plus
  maintenance grants
• Regional and community role
• Review of pay and working practices

10
Total HE student numbers, UK, 1960 - 2005
White Paper (2003)
Dearing (1997)
Robbins (1963)
11
UK HE student numbers by mode and level, 1979 -
2005
12
Percentage change in enrolments by subject area,
1996/7 to 2005/06
13
UK HE 1997- 2007

• Continuing/unfinished business
• Widening participation
• Employer engagement
• Europe
• Regulation (and quality)
• The F/HE nexus

• Change
• More devolution
• More universities
• Science and Innovation strategy
• Mainstreaming the third leg

14
Facing the future UK HE

• Solving the funding problem
• Contributing to social justice
• Enhancing the UK position in the knowledge
  economy
• A satisfying experience?

15
Fees and funding

• Supporting institutions
• Supporting students

16
(No Transcript)
17
Equity and access

• The big question progression and life-chances
• The little question fair access
• The bursary jungle
• Merit or need
• Our top universities

18
A positional good?

• You can only enjoy a positional good if others
  dont have it,
• The Economist 23.12.06
• Its not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
  
• Gore Vidal
• The trouble with fairness is that there isnt
  enough to go around.
• Guy Browning

19
Excellence and merit

• It is good sense to appoint individual people to
  jobs on their merit. It is the opposite when
  those who are judged to have merit of a
  particular kind harden into a new class without
  room in it for others.A social revolution has
  been accomplished by harnessing schools and
  universities to the task of sieving people
  according to educations narrow band of values.
  Michael Young, author of The Rise of the
  Meritocracy (1958), 29.6.01

20
Reputation over quality

• Institutions such as my own are outposts of
  serious and bright students of modest or
  low-income background taught by dedicated faculty
  who are often respected researchers as well.
  These institutions are home to a democratic
  institutional culture simply not possible at
  elite institutionsIt is time that the national
  agonizing about the income bias of elite
  institutions shifts its focus to these
  institutions. Lawrence Blum, The New York
  Review of Books.

21
Knowledge creation and use

• Investment
• Partnerships
• Regions
• Concentration of public funding

22
The balance of dual support
23
EU and global connections
24
(No Transcript)
25

Regions
HE research shows an uneven regional
distribution, e.g. Thomson ISI data on research
output and impact Height of blue bars
indicates publication volume, scale is
0-5000 Citation impact is red line, scale is
0-2.5 where world average impact (1.0) is second
line on each graph
26
Research grants and contracts as a percentage of
funding council research grant, 2005/06
27
World-classness

• Statistics
• Politics
• Journalism

28
World-classness

• What counts
• Research
• Media interest
• Graduate destinations
• Infrastructure
• International executive recruitment

• What doesnt count
• Teaching quality
• Social mobility
• Services to business and the community
• Rural interests
• Other public services
• Collaboration
• The public interest

29
The university community

• The fate of the compact
• The psychological contract
• Confidence
• Unhappiness

30
100 voices (2007)

• This is the most exciting time in HE that I
  have known in 10 years in the profession (14).
• I am frustratingly satisfied with my role
  over the past 10 years (60).

• Despite universities achieving overall
  excellent teaching and research results over the
  past decade they are in general pretty unhappy
  places (66).

31
The 100 voices

• Roles ()
• Heads of institutions (3)
• Deputies or PVCs (13)
• Senior administrators (21)
• Other administrators (24)
• HE experts (20)
• HE agencies (9)
• Professional bodies (inc. unions) (5)
• Academics under 40 (5)
• Student leader (1)

• Characteristics ()
• Male (58)
• Female (42)
• Academic (46)
• Support (54)
• 1-10 years service (22)
• 11-20 (43)
• 21-30 (22)
• 31-40 (14)

32
100 voices responses (1)

• The UK system is improving
• in teaching - 57 (9 strongly)
• in research - 61 (16)
• in services to business - 63 (11)
• in service to society - 50 (11)

• My own institution is improving
• in teaching - 57 (14)
• in research - 48 (29)
• in services to business - 53 (18)
• in service to society - 53 (13)

33
100 voices responses (2)

• Student motivation has declined in the last 10
  years - 27 (2)
• Student performance has improved in the past 10
  years - 33 (2) 40 unsure or unchanged
• Institutions well-managed on the whole - 58 (6)
• The sector is still significant - 64 (23)

• Increase proportion of private funding - yes 40,
  no 51
• Public confidence in HE has declined over the
  past 10 years - yes 33, no 34 32 undecided
• UK HE winning a global race - yes 22, no 25 44
  undecided

34
Higher education and human good (McNay and Bone
2007)

• 300 responses - open invitation
• ( agreeing)
• emphasis in universities more on systems than
  people - 85
• fear of sanctions against those who speak truth
  to power - 79
• pressure from PIs and formula funding has led to
  leniency - 75
• research integrity has been compromised - 70
• HE has lost its role as conscience and critic of
  society 72
• See website http//olc.gre.ac.uk/ET/VPP/Survey.ns
  f

35
Unhappy students (and their families)

• Student satisfaction
• Truth in advertising
• Extremism on campus
• Value for money
• Academic appeals
• Special needs

36
CEQ 06 NSS 07 Teaching staff
good at explaining 51 87 Staff make
subject interesting 53 75 Good
advice on study choice 47
65 Access to IT resources when needed 65
89 As result of course, feel more confident
about tackling unfamiliar problems 61
77 Overall satisfaction 70
82 Similar question Identical question
37
Unhappy staff

• Bullying, harassment and grievances
• The adoption of the human rights convention
• Industrial Tribunals
• Occupational health
• Career prospects, pay and pensions
• Performance management
• Work-life balance
• academic populism

38
Unhappy stakeholders

• Politicians
• Employers
• Neighbours
• The media
• Partners and clients
• The HE gangs
• The green ink file

39
UK HE in 2007 ten muddles

• 1. Fees
• 2. Regulation and quality
• 3. Skills and employability
• 4. Widening participation/fair access
• 5. Regions

• 6. Research selectivity
• 7. Europe
• 8. Sector solidarity
• 9. Britishness
• 10. Who is in charge?

40
A solution the people will decide

• The rational teenager
• The international campus
• Lifelong learners
• Generational change in staff

• Institutional reinvention
• Wider benefits of learning
• Public interest

41
Old wine?

• Newman
• Dearing on breadth
• The Harvard core
• The Melbourne model
• The Russell Groups balanced diet

• Humboldt
• Teaching and research
• Bildung durch Wissenschaft
• Independence
• In Einsamkeit und Freiheit

42
Discussion