mche open forum 2013 - malcolm gillies

2013: Universities –the ultimate challenge?

Malcolm Gillies, Vice-Chancellor

London Metropolitan University

AUA Managing Change in HE Open Forum

5 July 2013

2011: The challenges, the changes – preparing

Three parts:

1. Levels of challenge

2. Specifics of the White Paper

3. Changing administration and management

2012: The challenges, the changes – doing them

1. 6 key questions

2. A case study: Affordable Quality Education

3. Leadership, management, consensus building, collegiality

4. Introduction to shared services

2012: 6 Questions

1 Adaptation, status quo, revolution?

2 Is our purpose right?

3 Is our mission now viable?

4 Local, national, international domain?

5 Serving academic interests?

6 Administrative and support functions?

JOIN OUR REVOLUTION

Affordable Quality University Education

Education for the mass (97%) of HE participantsAffordable to the “whole community”, wherever

the widening participation may come fromQuality: “Decent education . . .”Value: “For a decent price”. An Age of Austerity: Declining living standardsIn summary: Part of the continuing massification

of HE at a time of, or because of, austerity.

Affordable quality education

1. We are committed to affordable and equitable practice

2. We are committed to providing value for money

3. We are committed to an access approach.

Leadership• From centralised “dictatorship” to faculty-based

leadership → the Dean’s role• From a culture of coordinated course delivery to

one of reengaged individual pedagogy → teaching responsibility

• From costs model to resourcing model → financial responsibility and reward

• From entitlement of teaching-and-research to the obligations of different scholarships → talent management

Management

• Transformation: reshaped portfolio, staffing profile, student profile, estates, finances, new ventures – under-resourced, over-regulated?

• Quality, efficiency, quantity – compromise?• People, incl. staff morale, student satisfaction:

focus, balance, dedication, faith?• Relationships: collaborating and competing?

2013: Leading through Change

UK Border Agency: from revocation to reinstatement

The danger: loss of reputation

The response: protecting the core business

The consequences: a tough nine-point action plan

The challenge: repairing the damage, regaining international business; turning adversity into advantage.

2012/15 Action Plan

1. Portfolio: what we teach

2. Fees: what we cost and charge

3. Business Process Redesign: how we do business

4. Business School Redesign: how we compete

5. International Re-launch: how we recapture markets

6. Estates: what we physically need

7. Contracts: how we gain better value from investment

8. Benefits: complying with and targeting benefits

9. Programme Management: coordination and control of actions

Supply/demand factors: UK today?

National brand positioning

Award standards, QA

Pedagogy, curriculum

Product competitiveness

Quick, intensive degrees

English-language

Supply/demand factors: UK today?

Disciplinary/professional flux

Masters concentration

STEM challenge

Cost, including exchange rate

Relatively expensive fees

Weakening currency

Supply/demand factors: UK today?

Visa/immigration issues

Crisis of “bogus” colleges

“Tens of thousands” net immigration

Post-study work changes

Only “brightest and best”

Exceptionals

Relations with EU and with India

Drivers of change

• Cost

• Quality

• Value for Money (Quality for Price)

• Technology

• Mass Dissemination (MOOCS)

• Internationalizing of Accreditation

• Mass Opinion, Mass Action

UK Growth/Decline in source countries, 2010/11 vs 2011/12

About Tableau maps: www.tableausoftware.com/mapdata

Pakistan-22%

Hong Kong+15%Thailand

+6%

Malaysia+8%

China+19%

India-32%

Saudi Arabia-31%

United Arab Emirates-1%

Taiwan-6%

South Korea-3%

Singapore+15%

Sri Lanka-25%

Bangladesh-8%

Global higher education: the mass?

World population: over 7 billion

Tertiary education students: over 150 million

Most studying at mass education institutions (97% outside global “top 200”)

Common themes: affordability; accessibility; jobs; the role of the state

Global higher education: cross-border students (the elite?)

Cross-border students: over 4 million (global 2-3%, static percentage)

Half from Asia; quarter from Europe

Most (over 85%) go to OECD countries

[Transnational students: studying for an award of another country]

Common themes: accreditation; status; “talent skimming”; immigration

Affordability and valueHolding Colleges Accountable for

Cost, Value and Quality

“Now, even with better high schools, most young people will need some higher education. It’s a simple fact: the more education you have, the more likely you are to have a job and work your way into the middle class.  But today, skyrocketing costs price way too many young people out of a higher education, or saddle them with unsustainable debt. . . .” (Barack Obama, State of the Union address, 12 February 2013)

Obama continues

“Through tax credits, grants, and better loans, we have made college more affordable for millions of students and families over the last few years.  But taxpayers cannot continue to subsidize the soaring cost of higher education.  Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it’s our job to make sure they do. . . .” (Obama, State of the Union address, 12 February 2013)

Obama concludes

“Tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act, so that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid.  And tomorrow, my Administration will release a new “College Scorecard” that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria: where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.” (Obama, State of the Union address, 12 February 2013)

US college tuition fees: “Not what it used to be”, The Economist, 1 December 2012

Is College/University Still Worth It?   (source: "Not what it used to be," The Economist. December 1, 2012)

Is College/University Still Worth It?   (source: "Not what it used to be," The Economist. December 1, 2012)

Is College/University Still Worth It?   (source: "Not what it used to be," The Economist. December 1, 2012)

The “$10,000 degree”

• Rick Perry, Governor of Texas• Rick Scott, Governor of Florida

The “inexpensive degree” initiative, in response to:

36 US states decreasing HE funding

8 increasing HE funding

6 maintaining HE funding

Perry to MOOCS“Here Texas is just part of a major, potentially transformational trend. Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among the colleges offering free, not-for-credit instruction . . . what are known as massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Some colleges have begun testing online courses for credit. Online instruction can remove the redundancy of having instructors around the country delivering the same lecture.” (“$10k college degrees are on to something”, USA Today, 2 December 2012)

MOOCS• The further democratization of content?• “The MOOC moment is upon us; it won’t go

away. We are in the midst of a seriously disruptive moment.” (Martin Bean, Open University UK)

• Showing “the best of education to the students of the world”. (Bean)

• Delivering value for free, or for a fee? Or from free to fee?

Questions

A Can a cheap degree be a good degree?

B How can universities reduce costs by one-third to one-half without damaging quality?

C Has the face-to-face nature of the University now had its day, and will everything soon be a MOOC?

So what is wrong?The challenges of repeated restructures, mergers and campus closures, on-going industrial disputes . . . The erosion of collegiality in the face of a competitive ethos, the muzzling of academics, public pronouncements, the introduction of mass casualisation, cuts to the arts, humanities and social sciences, diminished status in light of the rise of the sovereign consumer, obsession with brand promotion, and so on and so forth.” (Richard Hill, The Australian online, 3 July 2013)

A case study: part-time

40 per cent downturn?

Model is “bust”? (Langlands)

Do we know why?

How do we know these students are not still studying?

Do we have a “sector” or a sectoral response any more?

Contact

Malcolm Gillies

m.gillies@londonmet.ac.uk

020 7133 2001