Using the Comprehensive Spending Review to Assess Higher Education's Priorities

There's been a lot in the news about universities and their funding over the last few days.

From the results of the Browne Review and the subsequent increases in student fees to the predictions of £4.2 billion cuts (three quarters of which come from the teaching budget) ahead of the full announcement on Wednesday, much of the focus has been on teaching.

Which brings me back to my old problem with higher education: what do we want it to do and for whom? And that's a question the politicians, the academics, the university administrators, business, students and the wider population should be asking. Much of what has been discussed thus far has focussed on the teaching aspects - and particularly the teaching of those leaving school at 18. Universities have a far broader output - research, knowledge transfer into business/industry or cultural impact on the worlds around them. Yet, when examining the media output, the 'additional' areas are overlooked and their contribution to world-class teaching is not to be underestimated. To have good teachers, you need them to be at the front of their discipline.

There are concerns in the academic world that disciplines that are not obviously having an economic impact (the arts and humanities in particular) will be cut ahead of the sciences and technology areas which are deemed to bring in more money. Now these arguments are well rehearsed but worth remembering: research may not have an obvious or an immediate impact but that is not to say it is worthless.

So what do we want our institutions to do? Some may become teaching only with only a select few carrying out research. Some may want our student population to shrink and in its place a more vocational option for tertiary education developed. In all likelihood we will see a reduction in the number of institutions (with mergers etc.), in the number of students (fees will put off a few) and a rationalising of the subjects available (institutions focussing on a few areas, rather than all subjects).

On Wednesday we will get the broad headlines of how the Comprehensive Spending Review will be making cuts but it may take us some time to find out specifically which budgets are being cut and over what time. Over recent years there have been a number of reports on aspects of Higher Education (from Student Funding to Skills, Business Engagement to Research). All of these have been important and have built on the expansion of the Robbins Report in the 1960s. But few have taken the broader look, simply due to the size and complexity of the sector. Perhaps it is time for that to change and to capitalise on the cuts as a moment to fundamentally examine the sector.

There are not many academics who are interested in researching their own sector (though I hope to add to the number who actually are). But perhaps it would be a good time to use that intellectual capacity to fundamentally discuss the future of Higher Education system whether that be in terms of teaching, research or all the other activities currently undertaken.