Category Archives: Higher Education

October 13, 2010 · 7:41 am

The brave new world of a free market university system in the UK

The Browne review places the final nail in the coffin for the belief that universities are about anything other than economic interest.  From henceforth, university education in the UK has become a commodity to be bought and sold in a free market for individual benefit. Overthrown are beliefs that university education is about intellectual curiosity, about moral judgement, and about communal interest.

The short-sighted stupidity and naïvety of the recommendation that universities should be able to charge market prices for their offerings must, be challenged.  Even for those who see the world purely through an economic lens, the arguments against Browne’s recommendations should be convincing. Imagine a world where:

  • British students increasingly live at home and turn to high quality distance-based courses provided more cheaply by excellent universities, often in other countries;
  • Many students go overseas to study in countries where education is free, thus making a huge cost-saving in gaining a degree and contributing to the local economies of the countries where they study (rather than the UK);
  • Many UK universities shut down, because students realise that the courses they offer are a complete waste of time and do not give them any additional lifetime earning expectations; and
  • Employers, realising even more than they do at present that UK universities do not provide the skills for which they are looking, increasingly employ people without degrees, and give them tailored training courses (often collaboratively with other employers) to ensure that they have the expertise required.

These are just some of the likely economic impacts of the recommendations that are now before government.  The net outcome will be a dramatic reduction in the UK higher education sector, a shift overseas in the amount spent on fees and maintenance by UK born students, an increase in unemployment of former university staff who are unable to gain any other form of employment, and a decline in the wider contribution of the higher education sector to the UK economy.

Even on economic grounds, a decision to let universities charge whatever fees they think the market will stand is fundamentally flawed.  So, even for those who do not care about the social divisiveness, the intellectual sterility, and the communally destructive effects of such policies, these arguments should at least carry some weight!

1 Comment

Filed under Higher Education, UK, Universities

Tagged as , , ,

October 9, 2010 · 10:14 pm

The Browne Review of Higher Education

Can anyone tell me why Lord Mandelson (the former Business Secretary) chose John Browne (Baron Browne of Madingley) to chair the review of higher education in the UK that is due to report on 12th October?  Given his background, and the wider political agenda of which the review is a part, the report’s conclusions can never really have been in question:

  • Browne spent almost his entire career at BP, beginning as an apprentice in 1966 and rising to Group Chief Executive of the combined BP Amoco group in 2007
  • He was one of the most highly paid executives in the UK, with a reported £5.7 million salary in 2004
  • According to some, he was the person most responsible for cost cutting at BP that many attribute to having led to the Texas City refinery explosion in 2005 and most recently the Deepwater Horizon Explosion in 2010.

In short, he is a businessman, who was paid a salary that most people can only dream of, and built his ‘success’ on cuts.  Although he is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (amongst others), he has shown that he has little real understanding of the purpose of universities, the issues and challenges facing academic and students, and the crucial role that high quality research and teaching must play in Britain’s future.

Surely even he is intelligent enough to understand that increasing fees twofold or threefold will mean that many students will no longer be able to afford to go to university, or will choose instead to go to universities elsewhere in countries  that still believe in the provision of free, high quality university education. A free market in higher education cannot serve the interests of students, of the country, or of university excellence.

Just because Browne was able to earn such a large salary having gained a Physics degree from Cambridge and a Business Master’s degree from Stanford, does not mean that every graduate will be able to do likewise.  Only a few are able to earn the grossly inflated salaries that now seem to be so prevalent amongst senior executives in major corporations and the bankers who brought our financial systems to the point of crisis that has been so damaging to our economy.

A more intelligent and sympathetic Chair might just have led to a more creative and viable future for our once great universities.

Links to my reflections on:

Together, we might just be able to salvage a small number of high quality universities from the impending bonfire of the vanities.

2 Comments

Filed under Higher Education, UK

Tagged as , ,

August 24, 2010 · 6:30 am

Jobs or degrees for young people in the UK

It’s that time of year again: school exam results, and pictures of happy young people getting the results for which they hoped, alongside grim stories of those who have failed to make the grade! “Desperate for a degree?” in the Metro on 28th August, ‘”Carnage’ as pupils scramble for university places“, or “Universities swamped in mad dash for places” in the Times

Much of this reporting is highly misleading, especially concerning the difficult decisions young people are facing when they do not get the results that they had wanted. The Metro, for example, comments that “”Up to 200,000 youngsters were expected to miss out on higher education places despite record A-level results”.  Not a bit of it.  Why should anyone think they are missing out?

To be sure, it is very unfortunate when school leavers do much less well at their A levels than expected.  However, they should always have kept one of their university options as a safety net, in case of this eventuality.  There is absolutely no point in keeping  an offer of AAA and another of AAB, when realistically there is a possibility that you might get BBB.  Moreover, there is a fundamentally misplaced assumption that anyone who gets A levels – even low grades – should automatically be able to go to a university!  Why?  University entry is not an automatic right. It should be reserved for those who can benefit most from it, and can best use the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and understanding.

Although youth (18-24 year olds) unemployment in the UK fell by 16,000 over the last month, it is still 324,000 according to the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion.  Many young people are therefore choosing to try to go to poor quality universities, rather than entering the ranks of the unemployed.  Even with average student debt around £25,000 after three years, this is seen as being desirable primarily as a lifestyle choice.  The expectation is that graduate salaries will more than enable this debt to be paid off.  Anyway, at this age, who really cares?

There is little point, though, in many young people with poor A levels scrabbling to go to a university.  Many degrees offer few skills that will ever be of relevance in the job market. Indeed, employers regularly complain about the low skill levels of graduates in the UK! These people would be far better off starting on apprenticeships or entering the work environment immediately. They would not saddle themselves with debt, and in many instances their career prospects are just as good as those of graduates.  Moreover, by the time they are 21 they will have three years of income over and above their peers who waste three years simply ‘having a good time’ at university.  Graduate employment is tough – it is currently estimated that there are now some 70 people searching for every graduate job!  So, instead of going to university, those young people who are not really interested in academic studies should turn to the job market (see report in the Sunday Times on the university of life!).

This is really where we are failing young people.  Youth unemployment is far too high.  We need to encourage more apprenticeship schemes, and create opportunities for more young people to be gainfully employed.  It is far better for them to be working productively rather than costing tax payers money simply to enable them to gain increasingly worthless degrees at low quality universities.  Better still, we should close down half of these so-called universities, and instead create training institutes that would enable young people to gain the skills needed  to compete successfully in the global employment market!

So let’s stop fooling ourselves. Very few young people are actually missing out on university places!

Leave a comment

Filed under Higher Education, UK

Tagged as ,

August 19, 2010 · 3:07 pm

Vacancies for Two New Members of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission

The Secretary of State for International Development is looking to appoint two new members to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK.

The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission is a non-departmental public body, responsible for delivering the UK’s contribution to the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan. It achieves this through the provision of (mainly postgraduate) scholarships and mid-career fellowships to some 700 individuals from throughout the Commonwealth each year. The Commission also nominates UK candidates to take up awards made by other Commonwealth countries. The Commission receives funding from the Department for International Development, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Scottish Executive, and most UK universities.

There are 15 Commissioners, drawn from a range of academic, development, diplomatic and private sector backgrounds. Their roles are to:

  • provide policy direction and oversight
  • monitor the effectiveness of awards
  • ensure appropriate structures for governance and accountability
  • through selection committees held in February and March of each year, select recipients of awards

Candidates are also encouraged to find out more about the work of the Commission from its website, from which annual reports and other key documentation can be downloaded.

Full details of these vacancies are available at http://www.cscuk.org.uk/about/vacancies.asp

As Chair of the Commission, I would be very happy to discuss the post with interested applicants.

Applications should arrive by 17.00 (GMT) on 10 September 2010.

All forms should be completed and returned to the following address:

Dr John Kirkland
Executive Secretary
Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom
c/o The Association of Commonwealth Universities
Woburn House
20-24 Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9HF

1 Comment

Filed under Higher Education, UK

Tagged as

August 3, 2010 · 8:03 pm

Illiterate UK graduates find it hard to get a job!

I was interested to read a report by Jack Grimston in the Sunday Times on 1st August under the headline “Top firms forced to reject ‘barely literate’ graduates”.  What amused me is that anyone should find this surprising!  For years, schools have paid insufficient attention to the teaching of good English, and most university academics simply do not have the time to correct the spelling, punctuation and grammar of essays written by students.

The report commented that:

  • “Waitrose and other blue-chip employers are struggling to fill graduate trainee schemes, despite receiving thousands of applications, because candidates fail to fill in forms properly and sometimes seem barely literate”
  • “Will Corder, UK recruitment adviser at Kimberly-Clark, the manufacturer of brands such as Kleenex and Andrex, said his company had been able to recruit only eight graduate trainees, fewer than in previous years. One candidate, asked how he or she had developed leadership skills, replied: “At church Im [sic] in charge of some organisation.” Corder said: “Surprisingly, it is particularly bad among those doing master’s degrees — bad grammar, bad spelling and they do tend to be very, very verbose and say very little”
  • A shortage of qualified university and school leavers is holding back the economic recovery, according to early findings by the Institute of Directors in a poll of members.“A surprising number have vacancies they are unable to fill,” said Mike Harris, the institute’s head of skills, who will present his findings to Vince Cable’s business department. “They cite lack of skills and bad attitude. They are flagging up clearly that it is a real struggle to find workers and this is holding back recovery.”
  • “Recruiters complain of applicants unable to spell company names, answer simple questions or provide information instead of vacuous buzzwords”

This is a damning indictment of the British higher education system.  Whilst I would be one of the last to say that a university education should purely be about providing skilled employees for top firms, it is critically important that academics listen to what employers say.  The message is clear: universities are turning out graduates who often seem barely literate, and more worryingly still who have a poor attitude to the workplace.  Surprise, surprise!

2 Comments

Filed under Higher Education

Tagged as , , ,

July 4, 2010 · 11:35 am

Changes to A-levels: improving the quality of learning?

A report in today’s Sunday Times, highlights concerns expressed by the Education Secretary Michael Gove, about the structure of assessment in British secondary education.  As the paper reported, “Michael Gove wants to see A-levels become more academically rigorous and to scrap AS-levels, which are in the first year of the sixth form … He is responding to complaints by universities that the current A-level system, introduced in 2000, fails to prepare pupils for in-depth study”.

As the Sunday Times goes on to observe, Gove “will invite universities to design new A-levels, modelled on the new Cambridge Pre-U qualification, taken by a number of leading state and independent schools in preference to A-levels. Gove said: ‘We will see fewer modules and more exams at the end of two years of sixth form and, as a result, a revival of the art of deep thought'”.

There is absolutely no doubt that in terms of academic rigour most students who are educated in the British education system today lack many of the skills required to undertake a traditional university education successfully.  This is one of the factors underlying the dumbing down of standards in British universities that has occurred over the last decade.  The reform of A-levels may therefore be able to contribute to the training of young people’s minds so that they can better cope with the intellectual rigours required of a high quality university education.

However, this is only part of the story.  Many young people work incredibly hard for their A-levels, and perform outstandingly well at good universities – even under the present system.  Our secondary schools also provides them with a diversity of skills and other experiences that were simply not available a decade ago.  Such skills are important – but do not necessarily fit them for intellectually rigorous university degrees. Let us not decry the huge achievements of our young people who have gained excellent A-level grades over the last decade, and their teachers who have struggled to help them learn whilst also navigating the ever increasing amount of regulation imposed on them.

Yes, universities are indeed about training people’s minds, encouraging them to think beyond the confines of existing knowledges, and developing the incredibly important skill of critical analysis.  But we should not expect 50% of our young people to be interested in doing this, or indeed to be able to do it successfully!  We do need rigorous ways of accessing people’s aptitude to enter a high quality university system, and the present AS and A2 system has undoubtedly failed to do this.  However, so-called university courses that cater for the apparent demand for dumbed down mass higher education system do not need rigorous A-levels as a mechanism for judging the quality of applicants. If you can get into a university today with C, D and E grades under the present A-level system, it seems to be to be very clear that these universities are not actually interested in the skills that new, more rigorous and intellectually challenging A-levels might provide.

We must have an intellectually vibrant and challenging university system in this country.  But until it is accepted that this means we need fewer universities, and that other forms of further education are more appropriate for perhaps a quarter of our young people, tinkering with the examinations that young people  undertake at the end of secondary education will make little difference.

Leave a comment

Filed under Higher Education

Tagged as , ,

June 25, 2010 · 11:56 am

New guide to good practices in UK-Africa Higher Education partnerships

The Association of Commonwealth Universities’ Africa Unit has just published an excellent short guide on good practices in developing educational partnerships between higher education institutions in Africa and the UK.

As the Africa Unit comments, “The main reason behind the preparation of this Guide … is the lack of knowledge about the scope, nature and depth of partnerships in this area. The Guide does not set out to present a set of universal, objective rules to be followed and which will guarantee success. Instead, it identifies 10 valuable ‘principles of management and good governance’ which have been the driver behind a number of successful and sustainable UK-Africa partnerships, which can inform future partnerships”.

This is a really useful document, full of helpful tips and advice, and anyone considering developing such partnerships should get hold of a copy and read it diligently. The ten key principles that it advocates are:

  1. Shared Ownership
  2. Trust and Transparency
  3. Mutual Understanding of different Cultural and Working Environments
  4. Clear Division of Roles and Responsibilities
  5. Effective and Regular Communication
  6. Joint Strategic Planning and Implementation
  7. Strong Commitment across the board from Staff and Management
  8. Supportive Institutional Infrastructure
  9. Monitoring and Evaluation
  10. Sustainability

As someone who has been actively involved in such partnerships over the last decade, these principles resonate very strongly with my own experiences.  Many thanks to the Africa Unit for expressing them so clearly and succinctly.

1 Comment

Filed under Africa, Higher Education

Tagged as , ,

May 26, 2010 · 7:50 am

WISE Awards 2010 – closing date 15th July

The Qatar Foundation has recently announced the WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) Awards application process for 2010 – with a closing date of 15th July 2010.

Recipients of the 2009 WISE Awards were:

  • Sheetal Mehta for Project Nanhi Kali (India)
  • Vicky Colbert for Escuela Nueva (Colombia)
  • Delio Morais for Distance Learning in the Amazon Forest (Brazil)
  • Peter Levy for Curriki (USA)
  • Martin Burt for The Self-Sufficient School (Paraguay)
  • Joyce Dongotey-Padi for the Widows Alliance Network for Sustainable Economic Development in Ghana

The 2010 WISE Awards are designed to recognise and support outstanding practice and achievement within the theme of Transforming Education: Investment, Innovation and Inclusion. Applicants must show how they deliver on the following ten criteria:

  1. Educational Transformation: the overall extent to which the educational activity has transformed an aspect of education that has also had societal impact;
  2. Sustainable investment: the extent to which the educational activity is funded in a sustainable way to ensure its continuing viability;
  3. Innovation: the extent to which the educational activity is innovative in design and/or practice, thereby transforming traditional means of educational delivery;
  4. Inclusion and Diversity: the extent to which the activity includes a diversity of beneficiaries and has enhanced equality of access to education;
  5. Quality of Learning: the extent to which the transformation has improved the quality of learning;
  6. Scalability: the extent to which there is evidence that the educational activity has the potential to be scaled up effectively, or has already been replicated at a larger scale than originally piloted;
  7. Partnership and Participation: the extent to which the educational activity has established effective partnerships and includes participation from beneficiaries and stakeholders;
  8. Monitoring and Evaluation: the extent to which there is evidence of effective ongoing enhancement of the programme through regular monitoring and also evidence of formal internal or external evaluation procedures;
  9. Dissemination: the extent to which the organisations involved are already effectively disseminating and sharing their educational practices with other practitioners;
  10. Clarity of proposal: the extent to which the proposal is clearly intelligible and conforms to the requirements of the application process.
The  application process is designed to generate six Awards. Each of the six recipients will receive a WISE Prize Award of $20,000 at the Gala Dinner on 8 December 2010. Recipients will also be given the opportunity to showcase their projects during the WISE Summit to be held in Doha from 7 to 9 December 2010.
The WISE Awards application process is open to individuals or teams of individuals from across the world and across all education sectors (apart from previous WISE Award winners). Thirty finalists will be announced by mid August 2010, and they will be invited to submit more detailed applications. The six prize winners will be selected from these finalists.

Leave a comment

Filed under Education, Higher Education

Tagged as

May 23, 2010 · 11:26 am

Heading to e-Learning Africa, 26th-28th May 2010

This year’s eLearning Africa takes place in Lusaka, Zambia, later this week, and promises to be a great chance to catch up with colleagues working on ICT4D!  I have been lucky enough to participate in all of the four previous eLearning Africa conferences in Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana and Senegal, and they have always provided a useful opportunity to learn about some of the latest developments in the field.  It is particularly good to meet African academics and activists committed to using ICTs to support the aspirations of poor and marginalised people across the continent.

Thanks to all those at ICWE who have been working so hard in recent months to put on the conference – I hope it’s a great success.

Leave a comment

Filed under Africa, Higher Education, ICT4D conferences

Tagged as , ,

May 2, 2010 · 10:56 am

University fee rises: the time for protest is now!

The Sunday Times today reports that the review panel on university funding chaired by Lord Browne is likely to recommend that “universities would be allowed to increase fees well above the inflation rate each year – possibly by as much as £1,000 – as they move towards a free market”. The report also suggests that “Leading research universities could charge students an estimated £7,000 a year while fees for science undergraduates could rise to £14,000”.

Those who value scholarship, scientific excellence, and equality of opportunity in higher education must now take all forms of peaceful political action to oppose this proposal that would be catastrophic for universities in the UK.

It is scarcely surprising that the review panel is recommending such a free market approach to universities:

  • Responsibility for higher education currently rests with a government department called “The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills”, presided over by Lord Mandelson.  The priorities of this Department are on the role of universities in supporting UK PLC and on developing business solutions, rather than on the value of universities in their own right.
  • The review is led by Lord Browne, former Chief Executive of BP.  Why, oh why, was someone who took his company to near disaster (look at the current crises facing BP), and who was one of the most highly paid executives in the UK, asked to lead such an important review?  Surely there were scholars or scientists who understood the true value of universities, who could have done this better?
  • Most UK university Vice Chancellors are so concerned with maintaining funding for their institutions that they have forgotten their most important role which is to provide scholarly vision and leadership.  They have become co-conspirators in this move to a free market in higher education, where only the richest (or most corrupt) will be able to survive.

These factors combine to provide a recipe for disaster – all that the key actors in policy making can see is the need to generate more income to fund existing levels of student education at universities, and the only solution they can come up with is to raise fees, based on the ludicrous logic that higher education is a private good for which individuals should be willing to pay.  I have previously commented at length on the flawed logic of this, and so will not repeat myself here.

However, three arguments seem to me to be unassailable:

  • Universities are facing a funding crisis because of the mistaken belief that we need to have 50% of our young people gaining a university education.  There is no proof that providing a university education (which is in any case becoming increasingly second-rate) for this number of people is good, either for them or for society at large. The easiest way to reduce costs is simply to reduce the number of places on offer at universities.
  • Many students (although by no means all) waste their time at university.  It is a lifestyle choice which is preferable to being unemployed.  One of the reasons there are currently so many applications for university places is quite simply that it is tough to find a job during the economic downturn.  Instead, let’s make gaining a university place more competitive, so that only those who are really committed to scholarship and scientific excellence gain a place.
  • Rather than imposing sweeping cuts across all universities, it would make much more sense to close those that do not provide learning or research opportunities of a high enough standard.  Why are we so unwilling to close entire universities?  Businesses go bust and people are made unemployed.  The same should happen to the least successful universities.

The Browne review is focusing on the wrong questions.  It is trying to find ways to fund an over-bloated, self congratulatory, but in reality increasingly mediocre higher education sector.  Instead, let’s take a knife to the sector, and cut out the rot before it infects us all.  Let’s have a more streamlined, outstanding and successful university sector, where there is real competition amongst students to gain places that will give them a truly excellent education, rather than a dumbed-down, penny pinching, higher education environment where all that matters is getting large numbers of students through the door to make financial ends meet.

For those who believe that it is inevitable that students should pay fees to attend university, it is worth remembering that there are some enlightened countries, such as Finland, where people value universities so much that attendance remains free – even for students from overseas!

2 Comments

Filed under Higher Education

Tagged as ,