The vision of actual things Institutional Research Conference SSU

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The vision of actual things Institutional
Research Conference SSU

• Professor Sir David Watson
• 26 June 2008

Centre for Higher Education Studies
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Self-study and institutional strategy six traps

• Over-simplification the seduction of scenarios
• The lure of change change or change for the
  better?
• Bench-marking for comfort or for challenge
  Inside the whale
• Following the crowd RAE-fixation
• Reputation over quality
• Only good news dealing with the
  counter-intuitive

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• All we can do is to search the world as we find
  it, extricate the forces that seem to move it,
  and surround them with criticism and suggestion.
  Such a vision will inevitably reveal the bias of
  its author that is to say it will be a human
  hypothesis not an oracular revelation. But if the
  hypothesis is honest and alive it should cast a
  little light upon our chaos. It should help us to
  cease revolving in the mere routine of the
  present or floating in a private utopia. For a
  vision of latent hope would be woven of vigorous
  strands it would be concentrated on the crucial
  points of contemporary life, on that living zone
  where the present is passing into the future. It
  is the region where thought and action count. Too
  far ahead there is nothing but your dream just
  behind there is nothing but your memory. But in
  the unfolding present, man can be creative if his
  vision is gathered from the promise of actual
  things.
• (Lippmann, 1914 18)

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1. Scenarios

• The wired/wireless universe
• The new cold/hot war
• Here come the Asian tigers

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The seven basic plots (Christopher Booker, 2004)

• Overcoming the monster
• Rags to riches
• The quest
• Voyage and return
• Comedy
• Tragedy
• Rebirth

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2. The change fetish

• I tell my people that change and change for the
  better arent necessarily the same thing
• Karen Brady, Businesswoman of the Year, Desert
  Island Discs

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3. Bench-marking
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Inside the whale

• The passive attitude will come back, and it will
  be more consciously passive than before.
  Progress and reaction have both turned out to be
  swindles. Seemingly there is nothing left but
  quietism robbing reality of its terrors by
  simply submitting to it. Get inside the whale
  or rather, admit that you are inside the whale
  (for you are, of course). Give yourself over to
  the world-process, stop fighting against it or
  pretending that you control it simply accept it,
  endure it, record it.
• (George Orwell 1940, Inside the Whale)

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Percentage change in enrolments by subject area,
1996/7 to 2005/06
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UK HE student numbers by mode and level, 1979 -
2005
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4. Following the crowd
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Research concentration
HEFCE QR Four HEIs receive 29 of HEFCE research
funds Ten HEIs receive 50 of HEFCE research
funds 23 HEIs receive 75 of HEFCE research funds
Research Council funding Three HEIs receive 25
of Research Council funding Eight HEIs receive
50 of Research Council funding 18 HEIs receive
75 of Research Council funding
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Right-sizing QR life after REF

• QR winners
• Decline in dual support
• The mirage of Full Economic Costing
• Narrowing of mission
• Dominance of medicine and science
• Partnership aversion
• Gearing reduction

• The rest
• Mode 2 opportunities
• Creative and service economies
• Liberal curriculum
• Translational research
• The science of performance
• University-like businesses

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HEFCE funding R as a percentage of TR, 2000-01
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University of Brighton sources of research
funding 2003-04 (8.4m)

• Research Councils 19.0
• UK-based charities 1.3
• UK government (including health) 13.4
• UK industry commerce 7.3
• EU government 7.7
• EU other 1.3
• Other overseas 1.0
• TCS/KTP 9.5
• HEFCE QR 39.5
• Watson Maddison, Managing Institutional
  Self-Study (2005), 112

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5. Reputation over quality
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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 institutionsIt 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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Higher education and lifelong learning a
framework of change
Source Schuetze and Slowey 2000
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Ten top tens

• World-classness
• Times League Table
• Research Intensity
• International recruitment
• Graduate employability

• National Student Survey
• Degree results
• Social mobility
• Financial security
• Gay friendliness

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Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World
Universities (2007)

• 1. Cambridge (4)
• 2. Oxford (10)
• 3. Imperial (23)
• 4. UCL (25)
• 5. Manchester (48)
• 6. Edinburgh (53)
• 7. Bristol (62)
• 8. Sheffield (72)
• 9. Nottingham (81)
• 10. KCL (83)
• (Institute of Higher Education. Shanghai Jiao
  Tong University 2007)

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Times League Table (2007)

• 1. Oxford
• 2. Cambridge
• 3. Imperial College
• 4. LSE
• 5. St Andrews
• 6. UCL
• 7. Warwick
• 8. Bristol
• 9. Durham
• 10. KCL
• (Timesonline 17.11.07)

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Research as a proportion of total FC grant
(2005-06)

• 1. Imperial (29)
• 2. UCL
• 3. School of Pharmacy
• 4. St. Andrews
• 5. Southampton
• 6. Oxford
• 7. Sussex
• 8. Institute of Cancer Research
• 9. Sheffield
• 10. Bristol
• (UUK Patterns 7)

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Number of international (non-EU) students
(2005-06)1. Warwick (5,602)2. Manchester3. Nott
ingham4. London Metropolitan5. UCL6. Oxford7.
Birmingham8. LSE9. Middlesex10. Leeds(UUK
Patterns 7)
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First destination survey in employment (2005-06)

• 1. Buckingham (100)
• 2. Courthauld Institute of Art
• 3. Cranfield
• 4. Royal Academy of Music
• 5. Royal College of Music
• 6. Royal Veterinary College
• 7. St Georges Hospital Medical School
• 8. The School of Pharmacy
• 9. Trinity Laban
• 10. Dundee
• (UUK Patterns 7)

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National Student Survey (2007)

• 1. Buckingham
• 2. Oxford
• 3. Open
• 4. Loughborough
• 5. Leicester
• 6. Exeter
• 7. Institute of Education
• 8. St. Andrews
• 9. East Anglia
• 10. Birkbeck
• (THES 14.9.07)

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Proportion of Firsts and Upper Seconds (2005-06)

• 1. Oxford (90)
• 2. Courthauld Institute of Art
• 3. Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
• 4. Cambridge
• 5. Royal Academy of Music
• 6. Bristol
• 7. St Andrews
• 8. Royal Veterinary College
• 9. University College Falmouth
• 10. University of London (Institutes)
• (UUK Patterns 7)

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Percentage of students from social groups 4-7
(2005-06)

• 1. Harper Adams College (59)
• 2. UHI Millennium Institute
• 3. Wolverhampton
• 4. NEWI
• 5. East London
• 6. Greenwich
• 7. Trinity College, Camarthen
• 8. Ulster
• 9. Bell College
• 10. Teesside
• (UUK Patterns 7 note that the definition of
  lower class includes absurdly self-employed
  parents hence the agricultural tendency).

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Gay Friendly Universities (according to Diva 2005)

• 1. Manchester Metropolitan
• 2. Brighton
• 3. University of London (!)
• 4. Birmingham
• 5. Lancaster
• 6. Leeds
• 7. Hull
• 8. Bradford
• 9. Durham
• 10. Edinburgh
• (Guardian Online 10.8.05)

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World-classness

• Statistics
• Politics
• Journalism

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What makes a university world-class?

• The objective score board
• The subjective beauty contest

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Shanghai Jiao Tong 2004 and 2005

• Alumni prizes 10
• Staff prizes 20
• Highly cited researchers 20
• Science citations 20
• Soc. Sci./Humanities citations 20
• Adjustment for size 10

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THES 2005

• Peer review 40
• Employer ratings 10
• Citations per FTE staff 20
• SSR 20
• International staff 5
• International students 5

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World-classness

• What counts
• Research
• Media interest
• Graduate destinations
• Infrastructure
• International executive recruitment

• What doesnt count
• Teaching quality
• Social mobility
• Services to business and the community
• Rural interests
• Other public services
• Collaboration
• The public interest

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6. Dealing with the counter-intuitive

• Debt and liquidity
• Course not appropriate as dominant reason for
  withdrawal
• Elder care out-weighs child care needs
• Part-time work not related to financial
  circumstances
• Part-time students prioritise staff contact over
  services
• No growth in Firsts and Upper Seconds
• No correlation between widening participation and
  retention at School level

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Conclusion know your history

• What would George do?

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Discussion
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