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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 [email protected] 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