UK's Peter Mandelson Announces Major Review of Higher Education. (November 9, 2009)

The First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Lord President of the Council, Lord Peter Mandelson on November 3^rd informed the House of Lords: With your Lordships' permission, I should like to make a Statement about Higher Ambitions-The future of Universities in a Knowledge Economy_{(120 pages)}  that we are publishing today. [It is a framework for a 10-15 year governmental strategy for universities.]

Public funding for both research and teaching has increased by more than 50 per cent in real terms since 1997. Universities have developed new sources of income, and tuition fees are bringing in £1.3 billion a year to boost the quality of a student's education...

The strategy that we are publishing today aims to set a course for an equally successful decade ahead. But new times and new conditions require some fresh policy choices and judgments. The coming decade will see public expenditure inevitably more constrained. Attracting the best students and researchers will become more competitive. Above all, it will be a decade when our top priority is to restore economic growth, and our universities need to make an even stronger contribution to this goal.

He went on to tell the Lords that the government's first objective remains that "at least 50 per cent of 18 to 30 year-olds enter university", and then added, "All students must continue to enter higher education on merit. But I believe merit means taking account of academic attainment, aptitude and potential."

As to its second objective: The Government's second objective is for universities to make a bigger contribution to economic recovery and future growth... We have therefore decided to give greater priority than now to programmes that meet the need for high-level skills, especially in key areas such as science, technology, engineering and maths. A new contestable fund will provide universities with the incentive to fulfil this priority... We will look to business to be more active partners with our universities. Employers should fully engage in the funding and design of university programmes.

The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills also said that "We believe this is possible without compromising universities' autonomy and educational mission and then added these three additional objectives:

Our third objective is to strengthen the research capacity of our universities and its commercialisation.

The Government's fourth objective is to promote quality teaching. The quality of education provided by our universities is generally good but needs to be higher.

Our fifth objective is to strengthen the role of universities in their communities and regions and in the wider world.

In the decade ahead, we will expect more from our universities than ever before. They will need to use their resources more effectively...
 

Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students told the Guardian: "[N]o one should underestimate that this is a fundamental shift towards consumer elbow power, particularly from students and business," then added, "It's worrying if we send a message to students that the only courses that are worth pursuing are the ones that give financial rewards later on or have an economic utility," but praised the recommendations on social mobility saying, "For too long universities have dragged their heels on widening participation. This could have a transformative impact."

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, was distinctly windy: "The government and the opposition are in danger of creating a worrying agenda that is focused purely on trying to justify the cost of a degree."

She may have a point; The Times reported Lord Mandelson saying prior to his announcement in the Lords that it was "reasonable for the Government to use public funds to incentivise the outcomes they think are important for young people but also for businesses". He added that one outcome of importance to students was previous graduates' success in "moving on to good occupations".

The UK government also indicates that it is keen on initiatives that would invite matching funds, and to make sure that he was getting his message home he noted he wanted businesses to be more involved in designing university courses as well as funding them. He said: "Universities are not islands ... They have to respond to the needs of the society and the economy."

What will have wide-ranging repercussions in regard to university research in the UK is what appears to be the potential straight-jacketing through restrictive governmental funding. The 2008 RAE if nothing else demonstrated that the UK's most productive researchers are NOT concentrated in just a few institutions. Lord Mandelson appears to have come to the conclusion that this is bad and must be corrected.

As reported by Melanie Newman in The Times Higher Education Supplement:

Research should become "more, not less" concentrated across the sector, "especially in high-cost scientific disciplines", the Government says.
"Not every institution should feel that maximising its success in the research assessment exercise/research excellence framework is central to its mission."

However, it stops short of formally designating "research" and "non- research" institutions or shifting from the principle that excellence is the "defining basis" for allocating research funding.

It proposes greater collaboration as the way forward for the "pockets of research excellence" identified across a wide number of institutions following RAE 2008, which saw a dilution in the concentration of research.

The strategy's overarching theme on research is around creating incentives to encourage institutions to deliver research impact, though not at the expense of blue-skies work.

There is also a focus on broadening links with businesses and research users.

"Those institutions that can demonstrate a track record of delivering impact from their research will be rewarded," it says.

Support is also offered for the idea of institutions publishing annual statements on how their research benefits the wider world.

The Government commits itself to maintaining the so-called "dual support system" of research funding to universities and to keeping the Research Capital Investment Fund for research infrastructure.

On intellectual property rights, it encourages universities to avoid deals that may maximise their income but prevent "potentially mutually beneficial" collaborative relationships with business.

This matter of assessing the impact (as in immediate economic relevance) of university research surfaces once again.

Currently the UK has three of its research universities in the top 25 (Cambridge(4), Oxford(10) and UCL(21). Turn the screws to tight, and there will be a significant movement of the UK's best and brightest migrating across the pond. The US' economic crisis is not going to last too far into the next decade.

Does the order in which Lord Mandelson's ministerial responsibilities are listed signify the government's viewpoint of importance? If so, Britons have a serious problem