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How UK universities work (and how they can respond to current challenges). Ralf St.Clair University of Glasgow. Topics. The ideas of the university Structure Quality assurance Role of students Issues facing the university The future? Case study of Glasgow’s Court.
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How UK universities work (and how they can respond to current challenges) Ralf St.Clair University of Glasgow
Topics • The ideas of the university • Structure • Quality assurance • Role of students • Issues facing the university • The future? • Case study of Glasgow’s Court
History and philosophy of unversity shows up in: • Structure • Decision-making • Expected outcomes
Mediaeval university: • Designed for nobles • Retreat from the world • Often religious • VERY elite
Two C19 ideas • Humboldt– university as creator of knowledge through research • Newman– university as preserver and communicator of culture through teaching
Two C20 ideas • Massive research-led universities • “Massification” –univerisites for everyone, not just elite
Two Key Principles • Institutional autonomy • Academic freedom (Higher Education Act 1988)
BUT . . . • Major public funding • Clearly quantified outputs (student numbers) • High quality research • Increasing external quality assurance
Summary • Universities are in a very difficult position • Everything is contestable • Their structure is designed to deal with these ambiguities
Privy Council Royal Charter (1451) Chancellor
Privy Council Chancellor Senate Court Principal
A note on Court • Corporate style governance ($400m business) “small as possible, have a lay majority, limited staff and student representation and are distanced from universities’ work” Newman, THES 2010/2/8
Privy Council Chancellor Senate Court Principal Vice Principals Arts Science Social Sc. Medicine Research Learning and Teaching
Arts Science Social Sc. Medicine Research Learning and Teaching 3 Deans (Research, Learning and Teaching, Graduate Studies) 5 Heads of School
QA in the last twenty years • MASSIVE increase • The Audit Society (Power, 1994) • Increased surveillance at every level of the university
Institution • Enhancement-Led Institutional Review • Research Assessment Exercise • Learning and Teaching Plan (also College) • Rankings
Subject • Annual Programme Monitoring Reviews • Course evaluations • End of year reviews • Periodical subject reviews • Internal reviews • Academic standards committee
Committees • Staff Student Liaison Committees • Almost all other committees to do with Learning and Teaching, including Senate
Surveys • International Student Barometer • First year survey • Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey • Postgraduate research Experience Survey • Course Evaluations
Does all the QA activity help? • Probably not • Overlapping • Contradictory • Too much information • Often badly designed by non-academics • EXPENSIVE
£££ • Transfer of costs from government to students • 2011-2012 tuition support down 11%, capital down 38% • Less research money (most from central government) • Difference between Scottish (£0) and rest of UK (£9000) fees
Other • Changing interests and enrolments • Sheer scale • Aging infrastructure
Can academic and corporate management sit alongside each other? Probably not. The relationship is quite strained already, and it seems likely that the two will become more distinct.
What will replace mass higher education? Most likely more specialised institutions; a division between teaching and research universities, possubly between UG and Graduate focus
What does this mean for academic freedom and institutional autonomy? It’s not clear. It’s useful to the State to have universities nominally independent, so that will continue. Univerisities in the UK will take a long time to gather the resources to step away from the State. Research and teaching will be more shaped by the market.
Universities are no longer a place outside social forces to reflect upon them; they now directly reflect those forces.