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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 EducationUniversity of London20 Bedford WayLondon WC1H 0AL

Tel +44 (0)20 7612 6000Fax +44 (0)20 7612 6126Email info@ioe.ac.ukWeb www.ioe.ac.uk

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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”

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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.

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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”

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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

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0

500000

1000000

1500000

2000000

2500000

1960/1 1965/6 1970/1 1975/6 1980/1 1985/6 1990/1 1995/6 2000/01 2005/6

Robbins

(1963)

Dearing

(1997)

White Paper

(2003)

Total HE student numbers, UK, 1960 - 2005

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0

250000

500000

750000

1000000

1250000

1500000

1750000

2000000

2250000

2500000

1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

FT First Degree FT Other Undergraduate PT First Degree PT Other Undergraduate FT Postgraduate PT Postgraduate

UK HE student numbers by mode and level, 1979 - 2005

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Percentage change in enrolments by subject area, 1996/7 to 2005/06

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UK HE 1997- 2007

Change

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

Continuing/unfinished business

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

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Facing the future: UK HE

Solving the funding problem

Contributing to social justice

Enhancing the UK position in the knowledge economy

A satisfying experience?

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Fees and funding

•Supporting institutions

•Supporting students

                                                                                                               

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Equity and access

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

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A positional good?

“You can only enjoy a positional good if others don’t have it,”

The Economist 23.12.06

“It’s not enough to succeed. Others must fail.”

Gore Vidal

“The trouble with fairness is that there isn’t enough to go around.”

Guy Browning

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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 education’s narrow band of values.” Michael Young, author of “The Rise of the Meritocracy” (1958), 29.6.01

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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 institutions…It 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.

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Knowledge creation and use

•Investment•Partnerships•Regions•Concentration of public funding

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The balance of dual support

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Rese

arc

h incom

e to H

E secto

r (£

m)

Grants and contracts Core UGC/HEFC

Dual support transfer

Trend projectedon original line

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EU and global connections

Output % world

Collab % output

Output % world

Collab % output

UK 9.39 28.84 8.92 40.28

USA 35.04 19.40 33.65 24.74

CANADA 4.64 33.15 4.59 41.03

FRANCE 6.38 35.71 6.09 44.00

GERMANY 8.61 34.46 8.48 43.01

JAPAN 9.14 16.50 8.98 21.39

AUSTRALIA 2.79 30.59 2.91 39.76

CHINA 2.82 25.43 5.23 25.95

INDIA 2.12 2.46

1996-2000 2001-2005

Country

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Company, ranked by UK collaboration

Regional location of collaborating UK University Non UK

Name Total ISI papers Scotland

North East

Yorks & Humber

East Midlands

Eastern England London

South East

South West

West Midlands Wales

Northern Ireland

North West

Other co-

author

GLAXOSMITHKLINE 4767 129 32 114 70 150 344 238 63 63 24 3 85 2436

ASTRAZENECA 1832 53 26 82 48 29 133 100 70 35 20 1 61 725

PFIZER 1297 36 14 78 35 20 92 67 28 17 10 55 689

UNILEVER 1085 37 12 40 40 38 32 77 17 38 25 3 84 618

ICI 563 65 26 52 27 28 26 22 12 24 19 1 56 173

MERCK SHARP & D 1022 29 5 10 18 24 43 31 14 5 3 2 14 446

ROLLS ROYCE 347 3 3 8 14 42 13 44 11 30 6 8 78

AEA TECHNOL 616 7 11 12 9 13 32 32 7 8 4 2 28 347

SHELL 378 16 9 16 11 6 23 26 21 6 7 13 186

BP 292 29 10 16 3 10 22 21 9 1 2 10 6 103

ELI LILLY 536 13 6 6 16 9 20 14 18 10 14 2 7 505

SCHLUMBERGER 400 2 10 6 30 30 26 9 2 2 16 215

TOSHIBA 141 2 14 91 2 11 1 28

HEWLETT PACKARD 222 7 3 3 13 7 12 57 1 4 6 101

ROCHE 317 9 4 6 10 9 15 19 7 3 5 1 24 233

BNFL 171 2 1 13 13 11 6 8 9 5 2 5 34 37

BRITISH AERO SP 215 11 3 3 4 13 11 15 9 8 8 7 38

CELLTECH GRP 242 4 2 14 5 24 13 11 8 1 3 130

CORUS 129 6 2 5 5 1 2 6 1 47 1 7 7

BRITISH TELECOM 537 14 2 5 1 17 15 6 4 6 3 5 1 57

MARCONI 268 6 3 3 4 18 4 17 2 6 1 3 108

BRITISH BIOTECH 197 4 1 4 4 7 32 1 4 6 108

BG GRP 104 5 2 2 4 5 7 11 6 4 5 14

KODAK 91 10 2 1 19 1 7 1 8 2 21

SANOFI WINTHROP 99 6 5 10 1 14 6 1 2 4 39

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Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM

Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM

Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM

Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM

Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM

Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM

Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM

Med Bio PMS Eng Art H&L Soc SAM

10,500

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

Regions

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Research grants and contracts as a percentage of funding council research grant, 2005/06

0%

200%

400%

600%

800%

1000%

1200%

Sector

Russell

1994

CMU

GuildHE

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World-classness

•Statistics

•Politics

•Journalism

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World-classness

What counts

•Research

•Media interest

•Graduate destinations

•Infrastructure

•International “executive” recruitment

What doesn’t count

•Teaching quality

•Social mobility

•Services to business and the community

•Rural interests

•Other public services

•Collaboration

•The public interest

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The university community

•The fate of the “compact”

•The “psychological contract”

•Confidence

•Unhappiness

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‘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).

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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)

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‘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)

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‘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]

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“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.nsf

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Unhappy students (and their families)

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

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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

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* Similar question ** Identical question

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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”

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Unhappy “stakeholders”

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

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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?

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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

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Old wine?

Newman

•Dearing on breadth

•The Harvard core

•The Melbourne model

•The Russell Group’s “balanced diet”

Humboldt

•Teaching and research

Bildung durch Wissenschaft

•Independence

In Einsamkeit und Freiheit

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Discussion