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The higher education green paper will see market forces permeate universities The higher education green paper will see market forces permeate universities
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The government’s green paper, Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, outlines the means by which market forces will be permitted to permeate further into higher education in England and to a more limited extent the rest of the UK (Editorial, 8 November). It is likely to lead to higher tuition fees for many, increased state intervention into the organisation and delivery of HE, more bureaucracy for staff and less autonomy for student unions.The government’s green paper, Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, outlines the means by which market forces will be permitted to permeate further into higher education in England and to a more limited extent the rest of the UK (Editorial, 8 November). It is likely to lead to higher tuition fees for many, increased state intervention into the organisation and delivery of HE, more bureaucracy for staff and less autonomy for student unions.
Universities will be fundamentally transformed by these proposals, and the sector will be further disaggregated. Funding will be concentrated on a few leading institutions, and higher education will once again become available only for a minority who can afford to bear heavy debts. Open scholarship, collaboration and the sharing of discoveries for all are set to be displaced by objectives that privilege corporate interests and employability. The framework advocates the further embrace of metrics, the use of price as a proxy for quality, the relaxation of conditions of entry to the sector for private providers, and the creation of a regulatory body to ensure consumer protection from the abuse of market power. This is a failed model – the same one that failed to prevent the financial crash and the banking crisis.Universities will be fundamentally transformed by these proposals, and the sector will be further disaggregated. Funding will be concentrated on a few leading institutions, and higher education will once again become available only for a minority who can afford to bear heavy debts. Open scholarship, collaboration and the sharing of discoveries for all are set to be displaced by objectives that privilege corporate interests and employability. The framework advocates the further embrace of metrics, the use of price as a proxy for quality, the relaxation of conditions of entry to the sector for private providers, and the creation of a regulatory body to ensure consumer protection from the abuse of market power. This is a failed model – the same one that failed to prevent the financial crash and the banking crisis.
Universities should be places where staff and students can take risks, to develop critical and creative skills, to innovate and inspire – and, above all, to teach, research and learn without the fear that their every move is to be measured and quantified. The proposals outlined in the green paper will make it harder for universities to deliver high-quality education for all. We have committed to the holding of a convention for higher education in February 2016 to bring together as wide a constituency as is possible in defence of the sector from the reforms. We welcome all those who share that commitment to join with us. We can be contacted via https://heconvention2.wordpress.com/Professor Tom Hickey Brighton UCUProfessor John Holmwood Nottingham, and Campaign for the Public UniversityProfessor Martin McQuillan Kingston, and Council for the Defence of British Universities Professor Des Freedman GoldsmithsDr Sean Wallis UCL, UCU national executive committee and London regionDr Saladin Meckled-Garcia UCL UCUProfessor Miriam David Institute of EducationProfessor Dennis Leech WarwickPriyamvada Gopal CambridgeFeyzi Ismail SOAS UCUProfessor Bob Brecher BrightonProfessor Richard Farndale CambridgeDr Adrian Budd South Bank UCUProfessor Jeff Duckett Queen Mary UniversityProfessor Natalie Fenton GoldsmithsProfessor Jane Hardy HertfordshireDr Carlo Morelli Dundee, and UCU national executive committeeProfessor Malcolm Povey LeedsMary Claire Halvorson GoldsmithsDr Geoff Abbott NewcastleJohn Wadsworth GoldsmithsDr Deirdre Osbourne GoldsmithsDr Michael Bailey EssexProfessor Jane Rendell UCLDr Bruce Baker Newcastle UniversityDr Stacy Gillis Newcastle University Universities should be places where staff and students can take risks, to develop critical and creative skills, to innovate and inspire – and, above all, to teach, research and learn without the fear that their every move is to be measured and quantified. The proposals outlined in the green paper will make it harder for universities to deliver high-quality education for all. We have committed to the holding of a convention for higher education in February 2016 to bring together as wide a constituency as is possible in defence of the sector from the reforms. We welcome all those who share that commitment to join with us. We can be contacted via https://heconvention2.wordpress.com/Tom Hickey Brighton UCUProfessor John Holmwood Nottingham, and Campaign for the Public UniversityProfessor Martin McQuillan Kingston, and Council for the Defence of British Universities Professor Des Freedman GoldsmithsDr Sean Wallis UCL, UCU national executive committee and London regionDr Saladin Meckled-Garcia UCL UCUProfessor Miriam David Institute of EducationProfessor Dennis Leech WarwickPriyamvada Gopal CambridgeFeyzi Ismail SOAS UCUProfessor Bob Brecher BrightonProfessor Richard Farndale CambridgeDr Adrian Budd South Bank UCUProfessor Jeff Duckett Queen Mary UniversityProfessor Natalie Fenton GoldsmithsProfessor Jane Hardy HertfordshireDr Carlo Morelli Dundee, and UCU national executive committeeProfessor Malcolm Povey LeedsMary Claire Halvorson GoldsmithsDr Geoff Abbott NewcastleJohn Wadsworth GoldsmithsDr Deirdre Osbourne GoldsmithsDr Michael Bailey EssexProfessor Jane Rendell UCLDr Bruce Baker Newcastle UniversityDr Stacy Gillis Newcastle University