Oxford Consults on Academic Strategy. (February 7, 2005)

The University of Oxford published on February 4 a 16 page Green Paper Oxford's Academic Strategy. The media release is reprinted in full below:

The University has launched a major consultation into its future Academic Strategy. This is being based around a Green Paper

(http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2004-5/supps/strategy.pdf) which reflects discussions that have taken place at all levels within the collegiate University over the past year.

 

The document reviews the current performance of the University, highlighting both its strengths (such as the quality of staff and the impacts of recent governance reforms) and potential weaknesses (including the lack of an international strategy and declining staff/student ratio). It considers these in the broader context of the UK higher education sector and its current funding. These observations provide the basis for strategic proposals in the areas of: research; teaching; size and shape; personnel; admissions; services; finance; planning and management; and external relations.

 

The underlying aim of this exercise is to enable Oxford to plan its future to ensure that it retains, and ultimately increases its standing, among the small group of truly world-class universities. Oxford was recently ranked the leading university in Europe and fifth globally by the Times Higher Education Supplement, however, according to the Vice-Chancellor, Dr John Hood: ‘There is a danger that our main competitors will pull away from us if we do not act now. We must be confident that we are making the best uses of the resources that we have and at the same time, identify and capitalise on new opportunities that support our mission of academic excellence.’

 

Members of the University are invited to respond to this consultation online via http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/vc/acstrat/ by Monday 14 March.

The release of the Green Paper coincided with the university's chancellor, Lord Patten, giving the 2005 Radcliffe Lecture on February 3, "Where will Oxford be in 25 years time?". He proposed that Oxford must be independent, but not totally private. "As an independent institution, we will wish to attract the best scholars and students from Britain and abroad, regardless of their financial and social circumstances, but we will insist on choosing who is taught or researches here ourselves, and we will not compromise our standards in order to meet external pressures to promote social inclusion."

In addition he voiced the hope that "the government and parliament will have uncapped tuition fees and that those fees will more closely relate to the costs of the courses taken by students both here and elsewhere."  The full text of his Radcliffe Lecture is available online.

Interestingly, while Lord Patten has backed uncapping tuition fees, the university's Strategy Green Paper points out (p.8):

Recurrent costs exceed revenues because nearly all of the University’s core activities lose money. Educating the average undergraduate has been estimated to cost £18,600 per annum as against a total income of £9,500. The figures for the average graduate student are broadly similar. And much of the research that is done does not cover its full economic cost, because some funders pay no overheads and most others pay them only in part.

 

The introduction of variable fees for home/EU undergraduates will make only a small dent in the loss per student. The Full Economic Costing regime for research, starting in 2005, should help recurrently but, possibly, at the expense of losing periodic injections of capital from government.

The Green Paper point out, "Figures prepared under the Government’s Transparency Review Costing Method show that in 2002-03 (the last year for which data are available) there was a deficit on publicly funded teaching in Oxford of £27.8m per annum, not counting the shortfall in the Colleges, and a deficit on publicly funded research of £67.7m per annum. At the same time, Oxford’s international competitors are generating substantial surpluses and investing them to enhance their standing."

Science summarised Oxford's current financial status saying, "Currently, Oxford's income is running about US$38 million per year below expenditures, according to Ford's strategic planning paper, and "nearly all of the university's core activities lose money." The Oxford University Press helps reduce the deficit by transferring at least US$23 million per year to the university. To help slow the leakage, says Oxford spokesperson Ruth Collier, the university will take advantage of a new law next year that will allow variable tuition charges for U.K. students up to about US$5662 a year. The university also hopes to recruit more foreign students, who pay many times the domestic rate. Collier says the motivation is not to raise funds, because that would bring in an additional US$4.7 million per year--"a tiny proportion" of the annual revenue. Rather, the goal is to make the university more competitive in the world market."

The Introduction to the Green Paper ought to make interesting reading for Australia's academics as regards the role of The University of Oxford; it certainly wouldn't get the de facto approval of Australia's Federal Coalition Cabinet .

Oxford’s objectives

 

 The first task is to agree a set of high-level objectives for Oxford. The following statement attempts to capture the Collegiate University’s commitment to excellence in its research, teaching and direct contributions to society, and in its staff, students, facilities and services. Though the statement is very general, it is intended to have operational consequences, as indicated in later sections.

 

The University of Oxford is a community of scholars dedicated to the discovery and dissemination of knowledge, disinterested inquiry, and engagement with problems of national and global significance. Its objectives are to:

1.  Lead the international research agenda across the University’s disciplinary spectrum and through interdisciplinary initiatives

2. Provide an exceptional education for both undergraduates and graduates, characterised by the close contact of students with distinguished scholars in nurturing collegiate and departmental communities

3. Make significant contributions to society, regionally, nationally and internationally, through the fruits of its research and the skills of its graduates, its commercial activities and policy leadership, and its work in continuing education

4. Attract, develop and retain academic staff of the highest international calibre

5. Recruit the very best students nationally and internationally through an equitable process based on achievement and potential

6. Equip staff and students with exceptional facilities and services