Secretary of State of the UK's New "Super" Ministry for Business, Innovation and Skills, Peter Mandelson's Rationalisation. (June 16, 2009)

Last week Britain's Prime Minister, Gordon Brown in devising his revamped ministry created the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (DBIS) which, in addition to matters of business, will have responsibility for higher and further education policy.

Now Lord Mandelson had written an apologia in the Guardian opening with: "Nobody would disagree that our universities and colleges are as much about the cultural bedrock of our society as the competitiveness of the economy. So why bring them into a department whose core remit is Britain's economic development?"

The reply to his rhetorical question: "The simple answer is that the mission of the new department is to build Britain's resources of skill, knowledge and creativity."

Following a short cataloguing of Britain's educational and scientific positions he goes on to say: "Britain now needs to build on these strengths on the basis of a few basic principles. First, a high degree of autonomy for universities and further education has been central to their success," but there is a caveat, "There is a need to make sure we set the right overall strategic direction in the UK in terms of some of the key skills and specialist knowledge that we will need to excel in a global economy... we also need to recognise that universities and colleges understand best what their students need and how to deliver it."

Lord Mandelson then refers to the "ring fencing" saying: "[I]t is possible to further boost the role of universities in generating our economic growth without in any way compromising the place of fundamental science or curiosity-driven research in their mix. That is why we have committed to a ringfenced science budget and will keep the dual support system for research funding," however, he cautions, "...of course, this can also mean getting better at commercialising the research we already do. It can mean further encouraging collaboration between researchers and industry.

     "Over the next few months, we will be publishing a framework for the future shape of our higher education system... The framework will make it clear that we remain absolutely committed to a higher education sector that prizes excellence of all kinds. It will set out how the sector will maintain its contribution to Britain's economic competitiveness in a global economy and extend the opportunity and social mobility that come with education as widely as possible."

He goes on to admonish that while there "will always be some who think that higher and further education policy does not belong in a department with business in its title... They are wrong." But he immediately agrees: "The needs of business and those of higher and further education are not always the same, and never will be."

Nevertheless, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills believes: "At the end of the day, they are two parts of a single picture of a Britain that has the knowledge, confidence and character to prosper in a changing world."

Just what all of this verbiage will come to mean in practice, remains to be seen, but it may be remembered that Peter Mandelson was one of the first individuals given the appellation of "spin doctor" when he was the Labour Party's Director of Communications.