Comment

We’re under fifteen feet of pure white snow

by David Kernohan March 12, 2013

An avalanche is coming. An avalanche of nonsense. David Kernohan reviews the new publication ‘An Avalanche is Coming’ by Pearson’s Michael Barber and finds serious problems with the disease he outlines and even worse problems with his ideas for a cure.

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Defending British Universities

by Martin Hall December 7, 2012

Universities are ‘places where students can develop their capacities to the full, where research and scholarship are pursued at the highest level’. With critical issues at a time when our university system is undergoing some of the most traumatic changes in recent history, the CDBU has been launched to defend the academy and this is why I’ve joined.

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Public opinion could yet be our undoing

by Jenny Shaw September 21, 2012

It has been an interesting week. We have grappled with the apparent outcome of the government’s student number policy, we have struggled to understand whether disaggregating international students from net migration figures will really make a difference. As an academic exercise these are fascinating, layered as they are with perverse incentives and a range of consequences both intended and unintended. Wider public perceptions about higher education and related issues matter because politicians care about what voters think. In HE, there is a growing imbalance between the priorities of the sector and societal attitudes that must be better understood by universities and policy makers alike.

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Five questions about students as partners

by Rachel Wenstone September 13, 2012

The idea of students as active participants in learning has led to numerous projects designed to support students to contribute to shaping their course delivery and content, anything from independent study modules to students working with course leaders to shape their curriculum. All these things are good, interesting, valuable projects, but are they partnership? Are we in danger of adopting the language of partnership, or applying the ideas of partnership to specific one-off schemes and projects, while missing its transformational implication?

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Bursting bubbles in higher education

by Mark Leach September 11, 2012

In higher education, policy bubbles are commonplace. They float around the sector drawing disproportionate levels of interest and as they grow, they become less rooted in evidence, research or coherent thought. It is important to understand these bubbles if we are to improve policy-making in higher education, a project that has never been more important.

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Comprehensive spending

by Mark Leach July 16, 2012

As Oxford announces a £75 million donation to help its poorest students, Mark Leach tries to put the money in context and dreams about what else could be achieved with a chunk of change that size in higher education. Also, the news that the 2013 Comprehensive Spending Review may be delayed until late 2014 tells us some interesting things about the state of the Coaltion.

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The rise and rise of Michael Gove

by Mark Leach June 25, 2012

Last week’s furore over Michael Gove’s ‘leaked’ plans to abolish GSCEs and bring back the O Level was an interesting moment for the education policy community who largely thought they had plumbed the depths of their disdain for the Education Secretary. But higher education should be worried, because Gove has only increased his political capital over the last week and could be preparing to bring his policy horror show to a university near you.

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Why being a university matters

by Andy Westwood June 11, 2012

In last June’s Higher Education white paper (yes it really was that long ago), BIS declared their intention to reduce the qualifying threshold for university title from 4,000 to 1,000 students. All the other qualifying criteria – notably the need to hold degree awarding powers – would remain intact. Those institutions that might benefit from such a change made headlines when the precise proposals and criteria were published in the subsequent technical consultation in August 2011.

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An innovation and efficiencies pot?

by Andy Westwood April 10, 2012

The Government doesn’t quite know what it wants to do with the core and margin policy next year. At the moment their instinct is to run it again on more or less the same terms. Ministers don’t see either AAB or core and margin as permanent features of the system but they are mightily constrained by the short and longer term costs of the student loan book. Furthermore, there are no guarantees that the places top sliced and allocated through the core and margin will definitely be filled – UCAS application data shows that the biggest falls have been from older population groups and those perhaps already in work – both more common in the FE sector that has won most of the places.

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HE Bill to be dropped?

by Mark Leach January 24, 2012

Last night, The Telegraph reported that the expected Higher Education Bill is being dropped, or at least delayed until later in the Parliament. This news must be greeted with caution and scepticism until we know the facts. It is clear that the Government has made no final decision, but the fact that this could be the direction of travel is very revealing. In lieu of further information, we can however assess what we know and what it might mean.

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How does HE fit into the wider economy?

by Newell July 8, 2011

I was lucky to be in the audience for White Noise, University Alliance’s seminar on the policy implications of the HE White Paper. The event was quite well attended and, I felt, indicative of the sort of seminars that mission groups should be putting on. UA evidence was presented and then an open discussion had, which raised some interesting points, two of which have continued to play on my mind.

The first came from UA’s Director, Libby Hackett. She said that, within the white paper, the wider view of higher education and how it fits into the economy is limited. In fact, it’s barely discussed. At the time I tweeted that I have never agreed with a sentence more and I stand by that.

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Globalisation: Where on earth does HE start?

by Martin Hughes June 27, 2011

Universities Minister, David Willetts, recently said that the HE sector is only at the beginning of globalisation.

Willetts, speaking at the launch of the book “Blue Skies”, assured that change will happen as the sector focuses more on globalisation. He suggested that previously small players may be growing massively, but the balance hasn’t yet set in. The UK and other players have yet to play their cards in a big way.

Does this mean that Willetts is banking on an easy — or, at least, steady — overtaking shot at an opportune time?

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