Press Release

Government challenged to deliver on review promise

3 March 2008

Ministers have been urged to stick to their promise to take seriously the need to maintain a diverse higher education system in the Government’s new review of the future of the sector.
 
Representatives of small to medium sized universities and colleges said the Government must not allow the review to be dominated by an old-fashioned thinking about what higher education should do and how it should be funded.
 
John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said in a speech announcing the review today that the Government wanted to see "a diverse pattern of provision to match an increasingly diverse set of demands." He called on the sector to build a world class system “but not a set of uniform institutions".
 
GuildHE, the body that represents the group of universities, university colleges and specialist higher education institutions, pledged support for this view and urged the Government to consult with GuildHE members on aspects of the review that are their core business – including working closely with industry, widening participation, delivering high quality teaching, providing value for money for students, and meeting regional demands for HE.
 
GuildHE Executive Secretary Alice Hynes said GuildHE institutions were doing the most to shape the future of higher education in ways that are relevant to most people in Britain and to many key Government targets.
 
She said: "Institutions like those represented by GuildHE are at least as well placed to help define what the HE sector needs to look like and how it should change as those who have frequently driven agendas in the past."
 
"Our member institutions have always had to be more agile in their thinking and in response to changes taking place in the sector, shifting demands from students and other stakeholders, and changes in Government policy."
 
"We would urge the Government to fulfil its promise not to fall back on out of date models of higher education, and to bring its policies into the 21st Century where having a diverse university system is of growing importance."
 
Professor David Baker, GuildHE Chair and Principal of University College Plymouth St Mark and St John, said: “Many of the themes that John Denham looks to explore in this review are ones where GuildHE has both expertise and a major stake. We will be keen to be involved and will want to have our voices properly heard."
 
GuildHE members said they were ready to engage with the exploration process, but added that it needed to connect to many of the other HE investigations and strategies currently under development. The review’s relationship to the review of top-up fees in 2009 needed to be very clear, they said.
 
Professor Stuart Bartholomew, Principal of the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, said: “It would be disappointing if the review is merely the means to allow certain institutions to increase fees and release them from their responsibilities in relation to broadening participation. We recognise a more open market approach is inevitable, but this still requires careful handling and a sense of responsibility."
 
Dr Ruth Farwell, Vice-Chancellor of Buckinghamshire New University, said: “I agree with John Denham that this review must not be dominated by questions around what it takes to fund research of a certain kind. There are other aspects of HE in which we need to be world-class, including teaching, support for students, and working with employers."
 
Chris Carr, Vice-Chancellor of the new University of Cumbria, said: “One of the great strengths of UK HE plc compared with our global competitors is that our system is diverse in its nature. If we are to maintain niche excellence then the Government must recognise the true value of that diversity."
 
"While it is only right that the views of the UK’s top universities should be listened to in planning the sector’s future, it is equally right that those institutions that deliver in areas covered less well by research-led universities should have a say."

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