Representing 30 years of higher education change: UK universities and the Times Higher
2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 45; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/00220620.2013.730505
ISSN1478-7431
Autores Tópico(s)Higher Education and Employability
ResumoAbstract This paper argues that the Times Higher provides a powerful tool for understanding the changing character of UK higher education (HE) and can usefully be seen as representative, and in some ways constitutive, of that changing character. Drawing on an analysis of a sample of stories from the Times Higher, it documents the changing policy climate of UK HE from 1979 to 2010. It offers a broadly chronological account of themes that have emerged as prominent at different times during this period, pointing, inter alia, to fears about threats to the humanities, the rise of various forms of instrumentalism and the incorporation of HE institutions and agencies into a common mindset characterised by a preoccupation with marketing and corporate success. The last of these is embodied in the changing format of the newspaper itself and in its own activities as a key player in the HE sector, notably as a sponsor of university rankings and awards. Whilst being sensitive to countervailing tendencies, the authors suggest that the growing instrumentalisation of HE and related cultural shifts represent a changed 'structure of feeling' in UK HE. They conclude that the university rankings, awards and other image commodities that are a key part of this changed structure of feeling now play such a substantial role in the cultural life of universities that the norms of both rationality and professional ethics which tended to prevail in deliberations about university strategy 30 years ago may no longer be taken for granted. Keywords: higher education Times Higher policy trendsprivatisationmarketisationspin Acknowledgements We thank Duna Sabri and the anonymous referees for their very helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. Notes 1See, for example, Sheila Slaughter and Larry Leslie, Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1997); Cris Shore and Susan Wright, 'Audit Culture and Anthropology: Neo-liberalism in British Higher Education', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 5, no. 4 (1999): 557–75; Marilyn Strathern, ed., Audit Cultures: Anthropological Studies in Accountability, Ethics and the Academy (London: Routledge, 2000); Lew Zipin and Marie Brennan, 'The Suppression of Ethical Dispositions Through Managerial Governmentality: A Habitus Crisis in Australian Higher Education', International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice 6, no. 4 (2002): 351–70; Derek Bok, Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004); Erica McWilliam, 'Changing the Academic Subject', Studies in Higher Education 29, no. 2 (2004): 151–63; John Beck and Michael Young, 'The Assault on the Professions and the Restructuring of Academic and Professional Identities: A Bernsteinian Analysis', British Journal of Sociology of Education 26, no. 2 (2005): 183–97; Bronwyn Davies and Eva Peterson, 'Neo-liberal Discourse in the Academy: The Forestalling of (Collective) Resistance', Learning and Teaching in the Social Sciences 2, no. 2 (2005): 77–98; Sue Clegg, 'Academic Identities Under Threat?', British Educational Research Journal 34, no. 3 (2008): 329–45; Jill Blackmore, 'Academic Pedagogies, Quality Logics and Performative Universities: Evaluating Teaching and What Students Want', Studies in Higher Education 34, no. 8 (2009): 857–72. 2Kerry Holden, 'Lamenting the Golden Age: Love, Labour and Loss in the Collective Memory of Scientists' (unpublished paper, King's College London, 2011); Mark Murphy, 'Troubled by the Past: History, Identity and the University', Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 33, no. 5 (2011): 509–17. 3We had some concerns that sampling approximately one-fiftieth of the issues from the same point in the year might be inadequate to capture the full range of key themes. For that reason, we picked three years at random and chose to look at several other issues for those years. This exercise persuaded us that the sampling frame was adequate for our broad purpose. The reasons for this are (a) the large number of stories per issue, and (b) the fact that major stories tend to persist over many weeks and months. 4Run since 1978 and written in the form of a report from the fictional University of Poppleton, this column provides a close-to-the-bone parody of university life. 5Previous work on HE policy and politics has tended to draw primarily on survey data and personal experience, for example: A.H. Halsey, Decline of Donnish Dominion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992/1995); interviews, for example: Maurice Kogan and Stephen Hanney, Reforming Higher Education (London: Jessica Kingsley, 2000); or official documentation, for example: Brian Salter and Ted Tapper, Education, Politics and the State (London: Grant McIntyre, 1994); Ted Tapper, The State and Higher Education (Ilford: Woburn Press, 2007), with the Times Higher used more occasionally as a supplementary source. 6'Times Past, Times Future, Times Higher', THES, October 18, 1996. 7The University Grants Committee (UGC) was the quango responsible for advising the government on the allocation of funds to British universities. 8'Universities Resist UGC Cuts Plan', THES, November 16, 1979. 9HM Treasury, The Government's Expenditure Plans 1980–1981 (London: HMSO, 1979). 12Ibid. 10'CVCP Prepares to Fight Cuts Under New Leader', THES, November 16, 1979. 11'Students Plan a National Strike', THES, November 16, 1979. 13Ibid. 14'The Doctor's Prescription for Cuts', THES, November 16, 1979. 15'Unions Muscle in on Debate', THES, November 20, 1981. 1981 saw the first staff redundancies and course closures resulting from reduced government expenditure on HE: Kogan and Hanney, Reforming Higher Education. 16'Unions Muscle in on Debate', THES, November 20, 1981. Those institutions that were predominantly arts and social science focused, for example, Keele, were hit particularly hard by the cuts: W.A.C. Stewart, Higher Education in Postwar Britain (London: Macmillan, 1989). 17In 2010, after a long period of relative quietude, protests were once again to feature prominently in the pages of the Times Higher following the government's decision to reduce the HE budget by 40%, raise the fee cap from just over £3000 to £9000 and further 'rebalance' the sector in favour of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects (Rebecca Attwood, 'Thousands March as Students and Staff Join Forces Against University Cuts', THE, November 10, 2011). However, whilst there were some striking parallels between the 1981 and 2010 protests, there were also some notable differences, including the fact that vice-chancellors were this time on the other side of the dispute from students and lecturers, with many vice-chancellors having supported the fee rise and some actively lobbying for a total removal of the fee cap (Russell Group, 'Russell Group Response to the Browne Review of University Funding', http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/russell-group-latest-news/121-2010/4544-russell-group-response-to-the-browne-review-of-university-funding/) (accessed November 22, 2011). 21'UGC Plans Interventionist Policy to Cope with Spending Cuts', THES, November 14, 1980. 23'UGC will Intervene', THES, November 14, 1980. 24'Academic Life in Peril', THES, November 20, 1981. 18UGC, University Development 1962–1967 (London: HMSO, 1968). 19Kogan and Hanney, Reforming Higher Education, 144. 20Claus Moser, 'The Robbins Report 25 Years After', THES, November 20, 1987. 22Although arguments for greater selectivity and the concentration of research funding into fewer centres of excellence can be traced back even further. For example, see Council for Scientific Policy, Second Report on Science Policy (London: HMSO, 1967); Science Research Council, Selectivity and Concentration in the Support of Research (London: SRC, 1970). 25'Hard Right and Soft Left', THES, November 20, 1981. 26'Never Mind the Width', THES, November 18, 1983. The formalisation of approaches to quality assurance of the kind being advocated here began in earnest from the mid-1980s onwards via the establishment of the RAE, codes of practice for external examining and postgraduate training, teaching quality assessments, the Graduate Standards Programme and the Higher Education Quality Council (which became the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in 1997): Reynolds Report, Academic Standards in Universities (London: CVCP, 1986); DES, Higher Education: A New Framework (London: HMSO, 1991); Ron Barnett, with G. Parry, R. Cox, C. Loder, and G. Williams, Assessment of the Quality of Higher Education (London: Centre for Higher Education Studies, 1994). 27'Unions Clash over Appraisal', THES, November 21, 1986. 28Jarratt Report, Report of the Steering Committee for Efficiency Studies in Universities (London: CVCP, 1985), par. 3.41. 29For example, see Henkel, Academic Identities and Policy Change in Higher Education (London: Jessica Kingsley, 2000). The Jarratt Report was followed by the Croham Inquiry which recommended a reconfiguration of the UGC, and a year later, under the Education Reform Act (1988), the UGC became the the Universities Funding Council (UFC) at the same time as the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council was established: Croham Report, Review of the UGC (London: HMSO, 1987). Whilst for the polytechnics this represented a move out of local authority control and hence was perceived as conferring upon them, 'a new level of freedom … [f]or the universities it signified the end of a system based on personal relationships, trust and a shared belief in the value of academic self-regulation': Henkel, Academic Identities, 40. The UFC had a greater representation of industrial and business interests and institutional managers and a smaller representation of academics than its predecessor. This change also marked the end of the 'block grant' system and the inauguration of a 'contract culture' which carried with it the expectation that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) should see public funding less as an entitlement and more as something to be earned in return for providing a service: Kogan and Hanney, Reforming Higher Education, 155–6. 32'Dissension in the Ranks', THES, November 21, 1986. 33'Efficiency Study Warning', THES, November 16, 1984. 34'Management Firms Besiege Freed Colleges', THES, November 20, 1987. 30'Rankings Campaign Prompts Bath to Reconsider Cuts', THES, November 21, 1986. 31The suggestion that the institutionalisation of research assessment might penalise ideological dissent has continued to rear its head from time to time. For example, see Henkel, Academic Identities. 35'Big Plug for Student Share in GB Ltd', THES, November 20, 1987. 36This perspective received intellectual 'nourishment' from Martin Wiener's English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981) and Correlli Barnett's The Audit of War (London: Macmillan, 1986). 37The body established in 1981 to advise the government on academic provision in, and the allocation of resources amongst, the maintained sector HEIs. 38 THES, November 15, 1985. 39Ibid. 40 THES, November 21, 1986. 41 THES, November 20, 1987. 42'The Flight from Philistinism', THES, November 21, 1986. 43'Basic Work in Danger', THES, November 20, 1987. This was a view also articulated by some of the science academics interviewed by Henkel a decade later: Henkel, Academic Identities. 44'Research in the Humanities', THES, November 17, 1989. The same has also been said of the RAE, and its replacement, the 'Research Excellence Framework', which, like the research council model of managing research, rewards more collective modes of academic engagement, and a continuous 'production line' approach to publication in which 'outputs', usually in the form of journal articles, are produced at regular intervals over the course of one's career. Such pressures make traditional humanities norms, and also traditional norms within certain science disciplines (like theoretical physics), harder to sustain: Henkel, Academic Identities, 133–9; Strathern, Audit Cultures. In a parallel set of developments over the same period, graduate study has also been gradually reconceived to privilege an STRD model: Henkel, Academic Identities; Alan Cribb and Sharon Gewirtz, 'Doctoral Student Supervision in a Managerial Age', International Studies in Sociology of Education 16, no. 3 (2006): 223–36. 45'Evaluation of Research Impacts on Non-Academic Audiences', THES, November 21, 1997. 46'The Value of Higher Education in the Modern World', THES, November 17, 1989. This emphasis on generic competencies was to become increasingly evident across the full spectrum of HE programmes, including at doctoral level. For example, see RCUK, Joint Statement of the UK Research Councils' Training Requirements for Research Students, Vitae, http://www.vitae.ac.uk/CMS/files/upload/RCUK-Joint-Skills-Statement-2001.pdf (accessed July 14, 2010). 48Kenneth Baker, Secretary of State for Education and Science, 1986–1989. 49November 21, 1986. 47After three years of declining student enrolment, numbers began to rise again in 1985/1986: Halsey, Decline of Donnish Dominion, 93. 50I.e. the era guided by the principle enshrined in the Robbins Report, Report of the Committee on Higher Education (London: HMSO, 1963), that HE should be available to anyone able to benefit from it. 51'Baker U-turn on Student Demand Forecast', THES, November 21, 1986. 53 THES, November 15, 1985. 54 THES, November 21, 1986. 55Manpower Services Commission (1973–1987) – a quango, with representation from industry, the trade unions, local government and the education sector, responsible for coordinating UK education and training provision. 56 THES, November 21, 1986. 57Polytechnics Central Admissions Service. 58 THES, November 18, 1988. 59Ibid. 52Although it should be noted that not all who supported widening access did so on equality grounds: Kogan and Hanney, Reforming Higher Education, 74–5. 60Alison Utley, 'Take Us as You Find Us', THES, November 17, 1989. 61 THES, November 18, 1994. 62Alison Goddard, 'DTI to Reward Cooperation', THES, November 19, 1999. 63Kam Patel, THES, November 19, 1999. 64Olga Wojtas, THES, November 16, 2001. 66 THES, November 20, 1998. 65Celia Whitchurch, 'Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: The Emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education', Higher Education Quarterly 62, no. 4 (2008): 377–96. 67Indeed, according to an analysis of Higher Education Statistics Agency data carried out by the Financial Times, the numbers of managers employed in UK universities increased by 33% between 2003/2004 and 2008/2009 compared with a 10% rise in the number of academics: David Turner, 'University Managers Outpace Academics', Financial Times, February 22, 2010, http://cachef.ft.com/cms/s/0/82a755b0-1fe8-11df-8deb-00144feab49a.html#axzz1ej0iChOE (accessed November 25, 2011). 68William May, Beleaguered Rulers: The Public Obligation of the Professional (Louisville, Westminster: John Knox Press, 2001). 69TSL, 'Company Profile', http://www.tsleducation.com/company_profile.asp (accessed May 27, 2011). 70This account of the shift in emphasis and indeed the whole passage on the recent history of the Times Higher is informed by informal interviews we conducted with three current employees of the Times Higher in November 2011. 71Matthew Reisz, 'On the Shoulders of Giants', THE, October 13, 2011. 72See note 4. 73 THES, October 1, 1999. 74 THES, November 18, 2005. 75 THES, November 21, 2003. 76'Brilliance of Academe Celebrated', THES, November 17, 2006. 78Ann Mroz, 'Awards 2009: THE Leadership & Management', THE, www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/Journals/.../THELMA%20WINNERS%20SUPP%20JUNE%2009low.pdf (accessed July 14, 2010). 77'The Shortlist for Times Higher Education's Fifth Awards Ceremony Has Been Unveiled', THE, September 10, 2009. 79As an increasing number of agendas are set by external accountability demands – for example, the RAE, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), the THE/Thomson Reuters world university ranking criteria – there are few decisions left for institutions to make, beyond the decision of how best to jump through the accountability hoops associated with these demands, and hence the autonomy of individual institutions, agencies and the sector as a whole is becoming effectively obsolete. Given that the policy priorities of each HE institution are largely determined by these external accountability demands, it makes comparatively little sense, and may even be counter-productive, to allow democratic processes of governance. This arguably adds up to an erosion of the independence of, and the checks and balances provided by, distinct HE actors and agencies (e.g. Universities UK and HEFCE), which have increasingly been incorporated into a common mindset. 80Phil Graham, Hypercapitalism: New Media, Language, and Social Perceptions of Value (New York: Peter Lang, 2006). 81'Times Past, Times Future, Times Higher', THE, October 18, 1996. 82See, for example, Chris Hedges' Empire of Illusion in which university practices are analysed through this lens alongside professional wrestling and the pornographic film industry (New York: Nation Books, 2009).
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