Dear Colleague,
The White Paper, Higher Education and Research Bill and associated documents have given the education sector and others plenty to digest, in a programme that has developed and broadened since the publication of the Green Paper (and which the forthcoming Skills Bill may elaborate further). The concept of a TEF has been broadly welcomed, as has the more circumspect pace at which it is being developed, and universities are engaging with the technical consultation with a close eye on how metrics will capture the essence of teaching excellence. The linkage between the outcomes of teaching assessment and inflation-based increases to the fee cap may remain an area of discussion, though in protecting the quality of provision against rising costs it is significant that no TEF outcome currently envisaged leads to real-terms increases. The creation of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) includes a commitment to protect dual support, and an intent to remove barriers to the development of interdisciplinary research. Interest will focus on protecting the Haldane principle and the research ring-fence (including the integrity of QR funding), and ensuring that the Research Councils, Research England and Innovate UK retain an appropriate degree of autonomy inside the larger structure. It may well be that universities and others in education would welcome an explicit duty on this body and on the new Office for Students (OfS) to collaborate in promoting the research-teaching symbiosis that sits at the heart of many universities/providers (not least to prevent research and taught postgraduates falling between two stools).
A key question for all universities/providers (and for their students) will be how the acceleration of competition in the White Paper/Bill is calibrated and governed. It is reasonable to expect a regulated market to include some regulation; competition already exists in the sector and few will see issues with new entrants that are genuinely high-quality. How this is balanced with co-ownership of regulation by a broadening sector (potentially with significant numbers of new entrants) and the extent of the powers of the OfS and Secretary of State remains a core question. Concerns for universities/providers may also focus on some key specifics, including: (1) Standards, which are currently (under the 1992 Act) the responsibility of universities; here, for the first time, OfS has powers over standards, not only to assess but also to rate them. How would effective co-ownership with providers work? Of related interest, the Bill allows the Secretary of State to give guidance to the OfS that may ‘be framed by reference to’ particular courses, explicitly reversing the position of the 1992 Act. (2) The award and removal of Degree Awarding Powers, and controls on sector entry and exit, where there may be concerns about minimum requirements, and about abolishing the force of university charters (though, with greater freedom for HECs, this also helps create a level playing-field). (3) The powers of compulsion in the Bill, including that of entry and search where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting a serious breach of registration or funding conditions. There the debate may well focus on standards of proof, safeguards, and the separation of powers – so that, e.g., one agency or legal person is not simultaneously setting, policing and judging – and on maintaining the principle of fairness, included in the 1992 Act but not in the new legislation, alongside the right to make representations and of independent appeal.
Alongside the detail, where debate and discussion inevitably focus, several themes in the White Paper/Bill contain opportunity as well as challenge, and can help strengthen the way in which we operate as universities, including the focus on the student interest, on quality, and on streamlining regulation. These have already been welcomed, and will continue to be, as will the commitment of White Paper/Bill to promote the world-class teaching and research reputation of UK universities, and ensuring that UK higher education is as good as it can be.
Professor Andrew Wathey
Vice-Chancellor, Northumbria University