UK Academics Promulgate In Defence of Public Higher Education, Its Value to Society. (September 28, 2011)

The September 27 Guardian reports that nearly 400 academics, members of professional bodies such as the British Philosophical Association, and individuals have signed an "alternative white paper", which was developed over the Northern summer by a working group led by John Holmwood, professor of sociology at the University of Nottingham who founded the Campaign for the Public University.

Simon Szreter, professor of history and public policy at the University of Cambridge comments: "The hope would be that [the document, In Defence of Public Higher Education] provides a well-formulated agenda on the future of higher education, in contrast to the one [the white paper on higher education] the government has railroaded through. It is a counter to the breathtaking speed of the government programme and its reliance on an atrociously flimsy document, the Browne Review."

[For a PDF version click here] 

The claim by In Defence of Public Higher Education is that the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding, chaired by former BP chief executive Lord Browne of Madingley, and the subsequent white paper, completely ignore the public value of higher education, concentrating instead on "the private benefits to individuals in the form of higher earnings deriving from investment in their human capital, and to the 'knowledge economy' in terms of product development and contribution of economic growth".

Put in the most succinct terms the document essentially claims a governmental hidden agenda: "The commodification of higher education is at the secret heart of the white paper. The government seeks a differently funded sector, one which can provide new outlets for capital that struggles to find suitable opportunities for investment elsewhere."

Howard Hotson, professor of early modern intellectual history and a founding member of the Oxford University Campaign for Higher Education, told The Guardian: "There is no intellectual justification whatsoever for radically overhauling [Britain's higher education sector], and if you radically overhaul it, you can guarantee to make it worse," while Stefan Collini, professor of English literature and intellectual history at Cambridge says: "It's very important that academics who see the ways in which this policy is fundamentally flawed and misguided try to explain this and work for the long-term development of a better-grounded policy. For that reason the alternative white paper makes a very valuable contribution."

Below is  the executive summary of the 35 page document.