Thread by @DrLeeJones

My new report is out today: Saving Britain's Universities: Academic Freedom, Democracy and Renewal.

It identifies massification (over-expansion) and marketisation as the twin evils plaguing the sector and calls for the reversal of both.

1/18

https://twitter.com/jowilliams293/status/1293074326321868800

This report is the culmination of >10yrs working in UK universities & struggling in many organisations, from @UCU to @HEconvention, to try to improve them.

It builds on this long essay on marketisation, written last year, which >35k ppl read.

medium.com/@drleejones/th…

2/18

The report shows that HE expansion has delivered none of the expected benefits to society, but introduced many pathologies: wasteful spending, rampant bureaucracy & managerialism, degrading academic standards.

3/18

Successive UK govts have pumped students into HE, hoping that it will magically spur growth, create good jobs and a flourishing "knowledge economy". In reality, economic and productivity growth have stagnated as universities expanded.

4/18

Many progressives supported massification as a means to social mobility and justice. But poor students' participation in top-ranked institutions remains woeful, as do their post-graduate job prospects. They've been sold a pup.

5/18

Meanwhile the govt has simply abandoned all responsibility for HE's overall shape, instead outsourcing decisions to 18-year-olds and market forces. The result: expansion in "low-value courses" govt then bashes universities for.

6/18

This is also driven by inadequate funding for costly-to-provide STEM subjects: unis must expand low-cost Arts subjects to cross-subsidise. Inadequate capital funding likewise compels unis to generate "surpluses" (and contract debt) to grow. All failings made in Whitehall.

7/18

Marketisation was supposed to increase university autonomy and drive up standards through competition. The opposite occurred: rampant internal bureaucracy to deal with burgeoning market regulation and a race to the bottom on standards.

8/18

Universities are drowning in bureaucracy. Non-academic staff outnumber academics; expenditure on admin & central services quadruled from 1995-2018 while spending on academic depts only doubled. Managerial elite hoovering up the goodies, making busywork for others.

9/18

Meanwhile, university courses are dumbed down and grades inflated to keep paying customers happy.

Even more sinisterly, managers pander to (and some academics exploit) consumerism by restricting debate on campus.

10/18

Bizarrely, none of this has even saved public money or stabilised university finances. Govt spending on HE has *increased* while 25% of unis were in deficit even before #COVID19. Marketisation has driven many to the brink of collapse.

11/18

Internally, the academic profession is also close to collapse. Use of casualised staff up *483%* since 1995. Workloads >50hrs p/w. Terrible mental and physical health. 40% considering leaving profession. Not remotely sustainable.

12/18

So, what is to be done? We call for govt to take real responsibility for HE: stop outsourcing decisions to 18yo consumers and market; stop expecting unis to correct for all the ills of economy & society. Re-embed HE in wider regional, industrial, incomes policy.

13/18

We should transform the overall shape of UK tertiary education:
- Scrap expectation of >50% attending uni
- Rebalance to tech & vocational education
- Convert leading tech unis into New Technical Colleges
- Merge & close others
- Fund FE properly

14/18

Academic freedom must be made the founding principle of UK Universities
- New statutory duty reqd
- Backed by robust enforcement incl. heavy fines & removal of VCs for repeat offenders
- Establish 4 new "Free Universities" to trailblaze liberated teaching & research

15/18

Universities should be demarketised:
- Scrap fees; fund as public not private good
- Reintroduce sector-wide and institutional caps on student numbers
- Abolish regulations that preserve & extend the market - kill off REF, TEF, KEF, OfS and the rest
- De-bureaucratise

16/18

Universities should be democratised:
- Empower academic "parliaments" as the chief decision-makers
- VCs to be elected & removable by academic Senates
- More voice for students & local community
- Impose 1:4 pay ratio to curb elite predation
- End outsourcing

17/18

Many may disagree with aspects of the report, but I'd urge you to read it in full (not just selective media glosses). It's >40pp, grounded in evidence, & admits critiques of UK HE made only selectively by others. Let us know what you think.

18/18

cieo.org.uk/research/savin…