How UK universities work (and how they can respond to current

challenges)

Ralf St.ClairUniversity 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

The ideas of the university

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

Structure

Chancellor

Privy Council

Royal Charter (1451)

CourtSenate

Chancellor

Principal

Privy Council

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

Arts

CourtSenate

Chancellor

Vice Principals

Principal

Learning and

Teaching

ResearchMedicineSocial Sc.Science

Privy Council

Arts Learning and

Teaching

ResearchMedicineSocial Sc.Science

3 Deans (Research, Learning and Teaching, Graduate Studies)5 Heads of School

Quality assurance

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

Role of the students

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

Issues facing Scottish universities

£££

• 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

The future?

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.