bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Robbins Trap: British Attitudes and the Limits of Expansion*
Authors: Trow Martin
Published: August 2007

The Robbins Report (1963) helped to justify and chart the great expansion of British higher education in the decade and a half following up its publication. But this liberal and expansionist document has also served to limit the growth of British higher education by affirming the values and assumptions that define the English ‘idea of a university’. Among these values are:

the monopoly by state supported institutions of study leading to degrees;

their commitment to high and common academic standards for the honours degree;

a degree earned through full‐time study over three years; and

the costs of student maintenance and instruction being borne wholly (or nearly so) by the state.

These values and commitments, accepted by Robbins and the academic community as a whole, are incompatible with the provision of mass higher education to much more than the 15 per cent of the age grade currently enrolled in British higher education.
Loans for Learning: The Loans versus Grants Debate in International Perspective
Authors: Woodhall Maureen
Published: August 2007

After 25 years of debate, the government has announced that it intends to introduce a system of ‘top‐up’ loans, to supplement maintenance grants for students in higher education. Other countries, including Sweden, West Germany and the USA already have student loan schemes and the Australian Government has recently announced a ‘higher education contribution’, to be collected via the tax system. There have been proposals in Britain for a more radical system of student loans, collected via National Insurance contributions, or for ‘vouchers’ for tuition fees. This paper considers the arguments for and against loans, and the various policy options and concludes that the time is right to introduce a combination of grants and loans, but that the new system should be carefully monitored.
Marketing Higher Education
Authors: Moore Peter G.
Published: August 2007

This paper reviews the development of higher education since the end of the Second World War and explores the way it has been marketed over that period. The advent of a marketing concept is dated from the early 1960s, with the establishment of UCCA and the great public relations effect of the Robbins Report. The final sections of the paper explore the concept of strategic planning in higher education and the development of marketing strategies within a strategic plan.
Marketing British Higher Education Overseas: The Response to the Introduction of Full‐Cost Fees
Authors: Woodhall Maureen
Published: August 2007

Since the introduction of full‐cost fees for overseas students in 1980 there has been a marked increase in marketing activities in British universities, polytechnics and in some other institutions of higher education. A survey of 33 universities and public sector higher education institutions in 1985 showed that 90 per cent undertook some form of marketing to attract overseas students, and 70 per cent reported that they had intensified their recruitment and marketing efforts since 1980. The British Council's Education Counselling Service, established in 1984, is now extremely active in certain countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. As well as increasing their publicity, many institutions have also strengthened their support services for overseas students and have developed new courses for the overseas market, particularly short courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Although there have been some instances of institutions adopting a ‘hard sell’ approach, most recognise the need for ‘responsible recruitment’ policies, and many are now developing comprehensive strategies covering admissions, financial support, the structure and content of courses for overseas students and academic and pastoral support services, as well as marketing. Partly as a result of increased marketing activities, the number of overseas students, which fell sharply after 1980, has been rising steadily since 1983, and the number in universities is higher now than before the introduction of full‐cost fees. It is estimated that spending by overseas students now exceeds £1 billion.
The Problem of Research
Authors: Ball Christopher
Published: August 2007

This article, adapted from an address given in November 1988 to the Centre for Educational Development and Training at Manchester Polytechnic, offers an analysis of some of the problems of developing a coherent policy for research. It distinguishes three types of research, recognises the difficulty of defining an adequate level of support for basic research, and proposes some reforms of current arrangements.
Student Loans: a Northern Ireland Perspective
Authors: Cormack R. J. , Osborne R. D. , Miller R. L.
Published: August 2007

The government's proposals for a student loans scheme has been inadequately thought‐out and researched. Mr Baker's commitment to increase participation in higher education, and hence to increase the ‘outflow’ of much‐needed graduates, may well be undermined by the proposed scheme. In particular, what has been missing in the debate on loans has been a regional perspective. Northern Ireland offers a useful example in that, despite being the most economically depressed region in the United Kingdom, recent participation rates have already come close to the rate Mr Baker is aiming for in other parts of the country.

We cannot predict the effect of the loans scheme on participation rates. However, in present circumstances and under present policies, our guess, based on extensive survey research, is that the proposed loans scheme will diminish participation rates, particularly among those Mr Baker has targeted for special attention. Secondly, the cost of the proposed scheme to the government will be much higher than envisaged. Regional evidence from Northern Ireland suggests that large numbers of graduates will take a long time to earn sufficient salaries to rise above the 85 per cent threshold, if, in fact, they ever do.
Structural Uniformity and Functional Diversification: Swedish Higher Education Ten Years after the Higher Education Reform
Authors: Askling Berit
Published: August 2007

The Swedish higher education reform in 1977 was designed to create an integrated and unified system, by including all post‐secondary education in a new structure. The governance and organizational pattern were designed to support flexibility, creativity and capacity for innovation. The inner life of higher education today reflects these intentions of the reform but is also characterized by market‐orientation and market‐dependency. These new and strange issues in the higher education context are influencing the everyday life of an educational system, in which notions of centralism, uniformity and state legitimation are still taken for granted.
Education and Culture: a Perspective from Higher Education
Authors: Gaskell S. Martin
Published: August 2007

This article raises questions about the cultural values of higher education today. It states a range of concerns about students, institutions and some at least of the Government's policies. At every level from government downwards there is a tendency to fall back on means rather than objectives. Social attitudes and those held within education reflect uncertainties about the moral responsibilities of higher education. The classical cultural definition of higher education as an end in itself has encouraged an exclusive view, detached from the real world. The article discusses how cultural expectations can be defined in relation to higher education today and suggests some of the issues that need to be addressed. It is based on a paper originally presented to a Consultation on ‘Education and Culture’ at St George's House, Windsor in December 1988.
Changes in the European University: From Traditional to Entrepreneurial
Authors: Wasser Henry
Published: August 2007

Major changes are happening in European universities, associated with changes in the funding awangements. Success in the market place is supplanting peer group recognition as a criterion of university achievement. Science is being supplanted by technology. This article examines these changes in the light of the historical devebpent of the European university and with particular reference to changes in Swedish universities.
Financing Universities in the Federal Republic of Germany
Authors: Alewell H.C.K.
Published: August 2007

Financing universities in times of increasing demands in all fields of public expenditure is a problem of nearly all European counnies not least because of the ongoing process of European integration. Comparing the different national systems of financing universities may be a means to foster cooperation and competition in a step by step growing network of universities in the European Community. This paper tries to give some insights into the German system; special considerotion is given to its federal structure and its implications for the universities' financthg system, because these problems may be of interest to other countries also. Of course this survey cannot be complete; details must be left to detailed information. The first part of the paper gives a survey of the higher education system in the Federal Republic of Gennany. The second part deals with the sources of funds, including the structure of mong streams to the universities. The third part refffs to the restrictions in using state money in the universities and the problems resulting; the fourth and final part concentrates on problems of the future, especially getring third party finds, and the diversifiation. of financing.
Private Funding for University Research in Europe — Some Models and Conceptions*
Authors: Neuhoff Klaus
Published: August 2007

Social scientists have discovered only recently that there exists between the two major forces of modern (Western) societies (that is the market on the one hand and government on the other hand) a third sector. This sector is characterized by forces like voluntarism, idealism, generosity, autonomy of action in the public interest, brotherhood, charity and institutions like private giving, free associations and societies, philanthropic foundations and charitable trusts. The third sector is helpful in achieving voluntaty social justice outside the enforced contributions of government. If government retreats even more the future from investing an adequate share of total revenue in the science community and higher education at large, this social sub‐sector will need to look for alternative funding sources. Industry as contractor (naturally paying for the goods and services delivered by the higher education sector) may be one source. The third sector, known to many of the institutions of higher education for centuries, should be another. In the highly competitive environment of the future loyalties and other benign attitudes are no longer to be taken for granted, not even by alma mater. Therefore, higher education should invest some time and talents, as well as some ECUs in order to come to terms with this sector and to get a better share from its grant‐making capacities. The opportunities are there.
The Funding of Higher Education in the UK: a Contribution to the Debate
Authors: Walker Arthur , Wright Grahame A.
Published: August 2007

In this paper we review arguments that have been well rehearsed in the economic literature in the past twenty years and which are relevant to the present debate over student loans and the funding of the higher education sector.

The body of the paper assesses four finding proposals: (1) The Government's mortgage‐type loan scheme, (2) The Barr, National Insurance repayment scheme, (3) The Graduate Tax and (4) A Loan scheme based on the individual higher education institution.

Each proposal is assessed in terms of its efficiency impact in six dimensions, (i) set up costs and flexibility, (ii) administrative costs (iii) incentives (iv) information (v) the balance of public and private involvement, and (vi) equity.

We conclude that, overall, we would not recommend any of the alternatives as unambiguously superior on all counts. Insofar as a radical approach is to be implemented we argue that a scheme based on the individual higher education institution, with repayment via the National Insurance system, is probably the best option.
The Composition of Governing Bodies of Higher Education Corporations
Authors: Bastin Nigel A.
Published: August 2007

The Education Reform Act 1988 gave independence to polytechnics and the major colleges of higher education. From a position where they were the subject of tight and bureaucratic control by the maintaining local authorities, they have moved to one where responsibility for conducting their affairs in the hands of the small group of persons who constitute their governing bodies. This paper examines the composition of governing bodies in order to see the range of sizes adopted and how boards have been constituted within the permissible limits of the Act. It also touches upon some of the difficulties and ambiguities which have been created by the present legislation. A survey reveals that most institutions have decided to have larger boards which are not dissimilar to those which existed previously and few institutions have taken advantage of the flexibility of the Act and chosen to have small boards. It remains to be seem whether size and composition have any relevance to an institution's success or otherwise in the challenging years ahead.
Women Working in Higher Education: A Review of the Position of Women in Higher Education and Policy Developments
Authors: Jackson Daphne F.
Published: August 2007

This review is concerned with the position of women in higher education, and particularly that of women staff at all levels. A set of statistics is presented to illustrate the UK scene. Similar infmnation is given for some other countries. There is an emphasis on comparison with Australia because the situation there is changing. The position of women academics is clearly revealed – there are not many, they have more difficulty than men in obtaining tenured positions and much more difficulty in obtaining promotion. Some of the causes and consequences of this situation are discussed.

The development of policy needed to bring about change is examined with emphasis on the institutional attitudinal climate.
Higher Education and Fair Employment in Northern Ireland
Authors: Osborne R. D. , Cormack R. J.
Published: August 2007

As equal opportunities are assuming greater significance in higher education this paper examines the issue of fair employment in the two universities in Northern Ireland. The development of higher education and the evolution of fair employment policy which seeks to promote greater equality of opportunity in employment between Protestants and Catholics, are outlined. The employment practices and profiles of Northern Ireland's two universities are considered. Under the 1989 Fair Employment Act employment monitoring is a legal requirement for the two universities. The paper concludes by noting that other UK higher education institutions should undertake monitoring as a means of implementing equal opportunities policy.
Ethnic Minority Experience in Higher Education
Authors: Singh Ramindar
Published: August 2007

It appears that institutions of higher education in Britain are far behind the schools and colleges of further education in assessing the experience and success of ethnic minorities, and in developing and monitoring equal opportunity policies. The article starts with a review’ of currently available evidence from the literature on the participation rate of various ethnic groups in higher education. This is followed by a brief discussion of some key factors influencing their entry into higher education institutions. The information available to date indicates an uneven distribution of ethnic minorities between these institutions and the subjects they offer. The article contains the preliminary findings, from a research project, on the performance of students f om ethnic minority groups at Bradford & Ilkley Community College and four other institutions of higher education in the North of England. There is a brief discussion of some important issues, including racial discrimination and racial harassment, acting as barriers to the success of ethnic minorities in higher education. It is suggested that further research in this area is urgently needed to ensure that students from ethnic minority communities benefit equally from the higher education provision in Britain.
Market Forces in Higher Education
Authors: Howarth Alan
Published: August 2007

This article, by a Government Minister, sets in context and describes the developing role of market forces in higher education. Four markets are considered: for students; for graduates, research and other services; for academic staff; and for public funds. Limited market forces already operate in all these areas. Policies such as the shift to fees and student loans are expanding and focusing their role, offering new opportunities to higher education's providers and users. The national benefits are a more efficient and responsive system and fairer sharing of its costs.
The Student Market
Authors: Higgins M. A.
Published: August 2007

The Government has set targets for an expansion in student numbers by the year 2,000 at a time when there is a dramatic fall in the numbers of school leavers. Institutions of higher education need to create new markets for student recruitment, both among mature people and also among 18 year‐olds, this latter implying a more realistic assessment of the ability of applicants to benefit from courses and a new approach to school leaving examinations. In order to maximise the exploitation of these markets, institutions must adopt a more serious attitude to admissions, treating them more as matters of policy rather than of administrative function. Unless higher education adopts aggressive marketing and selling practices it will lose out to employers in the competition for young people.
Issues in the Management of Social Science Research Centres1
Authors: Walker Robert
Published: August 2007

Recent years have seen a marked increase in the number, size and importance of social science research centres. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), government departments and the universities have variously been responsible for this development, which has accompanied a greater emphasis on applied and multi‐disciplinary research. The business‐orientation of the centres has encouraged a new, managerial approach to research activity. Here, issues are discussed which relate to corporate development and performance control, finance, personnel, strategy and development, external relations, dissemination and utilisation. It is concluded that centres need to consolidate their role, and that this can only be achieved with the assistance of the sponsoring institutions.
Crossing Ulster's Other Great Divide
Authors: Birley Derek
Published: August 2007

Following the report of the Lock‐wood Committee (196S), the Northern Ireland government greatly expanded its higher education provision by creating two new institutions, the New University of Ulster, modelled on the English ‘whitebrick’ foundations of the period, and a direct grant institution for advanced further education, Ulster College. The first part of the article describes the reaction of the century‐old Queen's University, Belfast and the new creations to the challenges of the Seventies, including the Ulster ‘troubles’, and to changing student demands and community needs.

NUU soon began to experience difficulties in recruiting students, both in quality and quantity, whereas UC, which became a polytechnic in 1975, succeeded beyond expectations. In 1982, after a review by the Chilver Committee but against its recommendation, the Westminster government decided, as an alternative to closing NUU, to merge it with the polytechnic to form the University of Ulster. The article discusses the merger, and the alternatives to it, seeking to distinguish between that which was accidental to the Ulster situation and that which might have more general application. It considers the problems of co‐ordination, before and after the merger, including that of ‘complementarity’ between QUB and the University of Ulster. Finally it outlines the objectives of UU and the considerable progress made towards achieving them but sounds a cautionary note with regard to the social context in which it operates.
A Curricular Merger at a Medical College
Authors: Iredale Adrian
Published: August 2007

This article considers the planning undertaken jointly by the Medical Colleges of Saint Bartholomew's Hospital and the London Hospital to merge their two undergraduate medical curricula and develop a new innovative curriculum for 1990–91. Some of the institutional features which encouraged successful curriculum planning are described. The emphasis is placed on the mechanisms employed by the Colleges to reach their decisions rather than the details of what was decided.
Policy on Higher Education and Research: The Rede Lecture 1991
Authors: Swinnerton‐Dyer Sir Peter
Published: August 2007

My main theme is the relationship between British universities and Government, how it is likely to change in the next few years, and what effect this will have on what universities do and how they do it. I shall discuss what I expect to happen, which is not always what I would wish to see; the weather forecaster who predicts cold and rain does not thereby declare himself a masochist.
Reviewing the Reviews: The Geography of University Rationalisation
Authors: Hoare Anthony G.
Published: August 2007

Like many other sectors of the national economy, Britain's higher education (HE) has been rationalised in the 1980s, under central government directives as channelled through the actions of the University Grants Committee. Spatial arguments over the ‘where’ of university course provision have not featured prominently in the previous history of national HE policy, although a number of reasons can be suggested why they may matter. The paper reviews a major part of the rationalisation programme ‐ the UGC's subject‐specific reviews ‐ and finds the significance of spatial considerations varies appreciably among them, but for reasons not always easy to explain.
Dream, Myth and Reality: New Universities in England, 1960–1990
Authors: Perkin Harold
Published: August 2007

The New Universities of the 1960s began as a dream and degenerated into a myth before waking up to reality. The dream was to reform English higher education by example: to recover advanced general education, restore small‐group teaching, renew interest in research, introduce cross‐disciplinary subjects, and rebuild community in green‐field, residential sites. Early euphoria turned to disillusionment, born of unrealistic expectations and student unrest. Finally, they achieved solid institutional success but failed to transform national higher education.
The Natural Sciences in the New Universities
Authors: Thompson Sir Michael
Published: August 2007

The introduction of interdisciplinary courses and a high level of research activity were characteristics of the science schools of the New Universities whose consequences, educational and financial, are examined in this paper.
Quality: An Organising Principle for Higher Education?
Authors: Middlehurst Robin
Published: August 2007

This paper discusses the barriers and opportunitites facing higher education when assessing the usefulness of ‘quality as an organising principle’ for institutions. Four general definitions of quality are identified alongside a number of operational dimensions of quality. Both internal and external pressures towards quality of performance and service are outlined. Private sector and higher education quality systems are examined, and conclusions are drawn which emphasize the challenges ahead for leaders of higher education institutions.
The Funding of Teaching Quality: A Market Approach
Authors: King Professor Roger
Published: August 2007

This paper outlines four different ways by which quality in higher education can be measured and concludes that higher quality courses are best rewarded through increased student numbers and the ability to charge top‐up fees to their students, provided that adequate bursary schemes exist for students from less affluent families.
Making Audit Acceptable: A Collegial Approach to Quality Assurance
Authors: Becher Tony
Published: August 2007

This paper summarises the preparations made for Academic Audit in the University of Sussex and concludes that participatory ‘bottom‐up’ procedures are more likely to be successful than heroic ‘top down’ measures. The Sussex scheme for quality assurance has been characterised by negotiation and the encouragement of middle managers and individual academics to take ownership of the procedures adopted.
Staff Development in Higher Education ‐ Towards the Learning Organisation?
Authors: Brown Helen
Published: August 2007

The concept of the learning organisation is related to current and emerging practice in staff development, particularly in the Enterprise in Higher Education initiative. We examine the link between organisational development and individual development and argue that the current climate of rapid change makes a strategic and coherent approach particularly necessary. Key issues include the renegotiation of relationships between managers and professionals, the role of corporate strategy and the development of organisational cultures which are tolerant, but purposive. We conclude by describing the characteristics of staff development processes which have the capacity to enhance organisational learning.
A New Framework For Quality
Authors: Booth Clive
Published: August 2007

Quality emerges as an important theme in the British Government White Paper,‘Higher Education: A New Framework’ published in May 1991. Quality in both research and teaching receive attention. This article looks particularly at the latter, the differing approaches on each side of the binary line, the likely remit of the emerging audit unit, the difficulties of quality assessment in a single higher education system and the criteria for determining how far degree awarding powers should be bestowed on smaller institutions.
Elegant and Democratic Values: How Will the New English Universities Gel?
Authors: Price Christopher
Published: August 2007

This paper examines the respective cultures of universities and polytechnics under the former ‘binary’ system and goes on to consider the implications of this pattern for the development of the new unitary system. It is concluded that a ‘plurality of missions and cultures’ will emerge alongside the movement for an elite to a mass higher education system. The importance of a concern for quality in the learning experience of students and what this should mean in practice is put forward as a unifying factor in this diversity.
Student Loans: The Failure to Consolidate an Emerging Political Consensus
Authors: Farrell S. , Tapper E.
Published: August 2007

This article contends that over a long period of time there was growing support for a student loan scheme. In the event, the Thatcher Government adopted proposals which failed to consolidate that emerging consensus. What was it about the Government's legislation that achieved this political own goal? How can such politically maladroit behaviour be explained? What elements should the legislation have contained if the consensus were to be firmed up and enhanced? These are the key questions which we attempt to answer in this article.
The Wisconsin Idea: Extending the Boundaries of a University
Authors: Corry Joe , Gooch James
Published: August 2007

In 1862, through the Morrill (Land‐Grant) Act, the United States provided 30,000 acres of land within each congressional district so each state could use the proceeds to establish a state college of agriculture and mechanical arts. These so‐called ‘land‐grant universities’ have now expanded (academically and physically) to such a degree that many have ‘spawned’ large multicampus state university systems. This paper tells how a pioneer land‐grant institution, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, developed a world renowned outreach program and how the spirit and resources of that campus extension movement then spread to other campuses of the UW System.
A Merger that Failed: The Case of the University of New England
Authors: Harman Grant
Published: August 2007

In 1989–90 the University of New England combined with three colleges of advanced education in northern New South Wales to form a network university. Unfortunately the merger negotiations and the experience of this network university were marred by conflict and the network University is to split into two separate universities from 1 January 1994 at the latest. The paper provides a case‐study of the merger and tries to explain why the merger failed.
Creating a Binary Policy in Austria
Authors: Pratt John
Published: August 2007

In 1993, the Government of Austria passed legislation establishing a ‘binary policy’ in higher education. A new accrediting body the Fachhochschulrat was created, empowered to accredit vocationally oriented courses in any institution seeking to offer them. Institutions meeting certain conditions will be entitled to seek designation as Fachhochschulen. The policy marks an important departure from the traditionally highly regulated and centralized system of policymaking in Austria. The article offers an analysis of the factors leading to the policy and analyses the implications for the future. It draws on the author's experience as a member of a team of examiners from the Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) undertaking a policy review of Austrian higher education, and points to lessons for Austria from the United Kingdom's experience over the last 25 years.
The Theory and Practice of Appraisal: Progress Review in a Scottish University
Authors: Wilson Fiona , Beaton Donald
Published: August 2007

The paper reports on the emerging trend in the university sector ‐ performance and its measurement. This is an initial and exploratory study of the practice of appraisal in a Scottish university. The study forms the first part of what will become a longitudinal study of appraisal. Following an introduction stressing the normative nature of appraisal in the literature, the research is set in the context of that theory. A brief history of appraisal's introduction into the university system nationally, as well as locally, is included. Locally the prescriptive lessons from the literature have been learned and used.

However, the paper demonstrates the divide between the theory and practice of appraisal, showing the problems, strengths and weakness of the scheme as viewed by the participants. The problems include the fact that the scheme is seen as un‐necessarily bureaucratic and as imposed by government pressure. Secondly, it is impossible for the appraisee to escape from the judgement of the appraiser and a wider critical audience yet there are few objective criteria against which individuals can be judged. Thirdly, some individuals experience role overload with the competing demands on their time as academics. Some cloud issues of salary and promotions with appraisal despite the fact that the scheme has been devised to maintain a distinction between staff development and promotion and pay. Questions concerning equality of opportunity are also raised. If women are perceived to be inferior organizational members, how can they be appraised fairly? Is appraisal only going to reinforce negative stereotypes of women's academic performance? The paper concludes that appraisal is a very difficult political process and we should not be surprised if appraisers distort results particularly as they are being given the delicate role of both facilitator and judge.
Is Britain a Western European Country? A Multivariate Analysis of Western Higher Education Systems
Authors: Tight Malcolm
Published: August 2007

Using data collected by the Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD), a multivariate analysis of 13 measures for 16 countries is carried out with the aim of identifying similarities and differences between national systems of higher education. The results support the view that the North American systems of higher education are distinctive in terms of their high participation rates. They suggest that there are significant variations within Europe, particularly in terms of demographic structures, participation and expenditure rates. Three possible sub‐groups are identified, focused on (i) Austria, Ireland, Italy and Spain; (ii) Belgium, France, Germany and the United Kingdom; and (iii) Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Japan, the only Asian country included in the analysis, appears to be more similar to Finland than any other country.
Graduate Studies in the UK: Some Impressions and Suggestions
Authors: Holdaway Edward A.
Published: August 2007

Many western countries are paying increasing attention to the organization and administration of graduate studies. Such attention has developed from primary concerns about completion times, completion percentages, programme quality, and student quality, as well as secondary concerns about supervisors, funding, coursework, inter‐organizational co‐operation, and policies and practices of both universities and research councils. Using information about British graduate programmes as a basis, the article presents policy issues related to research councils, funding councils, and control, followed by discussion of the themes of the nature of programmes, supervision and evaluation, completion time, quality, and innovation. The final sections address several concerns and offer some suggestions.
Trends and Tensions in IT Policy in Universities
Authors: Gardner John , Fulton John , Best Joanne
Published: August 2007

This paper charts developments in information technology policy in British universities from the creation of the Computer Board for Universities and Research Councils to the present day. Focusing on institutional issues, the various organizational tensions are examined in the context of quasi‐collegial policy formulation and management. The impact of operational tensions, arising from a variety of external and internal influences on the implementation of policy, is similarly assessed. The paper concludes with an outline of likely future trends.
Implementing the Process of Modularisation in Higher Education: Some Trans‐National Issues
Authors: Crossley Michael , Clarke Gill , Tabi Teophilus , Thomas Harold
Published: August 2007

This article examines the modularisation movement in higher education in the light of a comparative study of recent experience at the universities of Ghana and Bristol. Particular attention is given to an identification of motivating factors, both internal and external, and to an analysis of similarities and differences in the implementation of the modularisation process. The analysis focuses primarily upon perspectives articulated by government and administrators in the modularisation debate; but points to the need for further studies that more directly document the nature of the academic response.
Are British Universities in a Position to Consider Implementing Total Quality Management?
Authors: Chaston Ian
Published: August 2007

Accompanying the removal of the binary divide between polytechnics and universities, the Department of Education and Science (DES) also specified the requirement that the British higher education sector should give more emphasis to the effective management of quality. Some writers have suggested that this can be achieved by institutions introducing the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM). A vital aspect of TQM is the integration of multiple functions across the organization with the objective of establishing a quality conscious workforce. A recommended practice is to use the concept of internal marketing as a mechanism to persuade departments to work together in the creation of internal customer chains. To determine the current status of internal customer management practices in British Universities, a survey of academics was undertaken using a modified version of the Parasuraman SERVQUAL model. The majority of respondents indicated the existence of Type 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Gaps in the internal customer management process within their institution. Major influencers of these service gaps include minimal effort to gain further understanding of internal customer requirements and a lack of formal quality standards for managing internal customer relations. Respondents consider their faculties are unable to enhance internal quality if the issue was given higher priority by senior management. Identified obstacles to greater emphasis on an internal customer philosophy include insufficient trust between departments and low confidence levels of ability to manage the process. Under these circumstances, it does not appear that for the foreseeable future, British universities are in a position to adopt TQM philosophy. Hence it seems more advisable that these institutions should restrict their quality management activities to the simpler assessment‐based approach recommended by the Committee of Vice‐Chancellors and Principals (CVCP) Academic Audit Unit.
Government, Higher Education and the Industrial Ethic
Authors: Tasker Mary , Packham David
Published: August 2007

The argument of this paper is that there have always been, and still remain, fundamental differences between the purposes of industry and those of higher education. Industry's concern is to make a profit, universities are concerned with open enquiry and intellectual freedom. The values of the two are incommensurable, and it is important that these conflicts of values are not obscured by ambiguity of language or by external pressures.

For more than a decade the British government has sought to increase the competitiveness of industry, and has initiated many changes in universities which it has linked to this policy. Three such developments are critically discussed: the enterprise in higher education initiative, academic audit and assessment of teaching quality and the recent White Paper on fundamental research. It is argued that the tendency of each of these is to cause the merging of business values with those of higher education. If this tendency proceeds unchecked universities will no longer be able to fulfil their vital rôle in a free society ‐ the advancement of new and controversial ideas and the education of their students to think critically and autonomously.
Research Users, Producers and Funders: Challenges to Scientific Research in British Universities
Authors: Solesbury William
Published: August 2007

Scientific research in universities is undergoing a process of restructuring. To a large extent this process is driven by the changing roles of research funders, research producers and research users. Business is the dominant producer of research, government ‐ through departmental research agencies and research council institutes ‐ is second in importance and universities are relatively minor producers. However, in all sectors there is a process of fragmentation through which independent research producers are emerging. The balance of research funding in the last decade or so has shifted relatively from the dominance of government to the dominance of business, with a growing relative contribution from charities and from overseas. But this diversification of funding has taken place within a broadly stable aggregate level. Research users have started behaving much more as research customers: it is estimated that eighty three per cent of British scientific research is purchased by those in business or government, who wish to use it very directly in their work. These changes pose challenges to the traditional view of university research as a public good or a cultural enterprise; increasingly it is becoming a mode of economic production.
Can we have a unified theory of quality?
Authors: Doherty Geoffrey
Published: August 2007

This paper examines a number of concepts of quality from Plato to Taguchi. That there is no generally accepted theory has led researchers to report various problems and adopt various devices to get round this difficult situation. Governmental concern with accountability and its implications in the current ‘quality debate’ are considered and a simple theory to meet all cases is proposed.
The Regional Dimension in Strategic Planning of Higher Education
Authors: McNay Ian
Published: August 2007

This article argues that:

in addition to strong regional features in patterns of access to higher education there is historical evidence of informal recognition of regional factors in decisions affecting supply and availability of provision;

that further recognition of the region as a significant level of decision making is both inevitable and desirable;

that formal democratic structures should be established to recognise that trend and to ensure better governance, strategic planning and coordination of an integrated provision.
Accommodation Planning and Learning Environments in a Large, Dispersed University
Authors: Billing David
Published: August 2007

A large and multi‐site British University's experience over three years in developing and implementing an Accommodation/Estate Strategy is summarized. The issues which arise are the conflict between efficient utilization and flexible education, the absence of any useful sector space norms for an institution with more pan‐time than full‐time students, the uncertainty over projections of required types and amounts of learning environments in the next twenty years or more, academic disquiet over re‐locations, the effectiveness of central space allocation systems and the difficulty in designing a sensitive but productive space charging system.
Debt: the reality of student life
Authors: McCarthy Peter , Humphrey Robin
Published: August 2007

During the 1980s, a political consensus developed concerning the need to increase participation in higher education (Walker and Wright, 1990). How to finance this increase, however, was a matter of contention. While successive Conservative governments demonstrated a commitment to increasing the number of students, this aim was subordinate to their central concern of controlling public expenditure, which meant they were not prepared to meet the cost of expansion totally from the public purse. As a consequence, alternative ways of financing students were introduced which, as this paper will demonstrate, have led to a higher education system subsidized by student debt.
Enterprise in Higher Education: Issues of Evaluation
Authors: Elton Lewis
Published: August 2007

The article describes the many ways in which the Enterprise in Higher Education Initiative (EHE) has been evaluated and the extent to which different stakeholders are likely to be satisfied with the Initiative. It also comments on some of the negative criticisms made of the Initiative and suggests that these are largely due to misunderstandings of what the Initiative had initially set out to achieve. In particular it concludes that EHE cannot be convicted of having tried to pervert academic values to those of the market place.
Leadership, Quality and Institutional Effectiveness
Authors: Middlehurst Robin
Published: August 2007

Institutions of higher education have been slower than commercial enterprises to realise the links between leadership and quality. However, changes in the internal and external environment of universities and colleges are bringing these connections to the fore. This paper presents an overview of current thinking on quality and leadership in the context of institutional effectiveness. The authors explore different interpretations of leadership and quality, and examine their potential contribution to managing change and to the achievement of a culture of quality enhancement in higher education.
Core Skills and the Idea of the Graduate
Authors: Woollard Anthony
Published: August 2007

The question ‘What is a graduate?’ is under scrutiny from Government, employers and the higher education community itself. There are two current approaches—one originating within the philosophy of higher education, one emerging from the demands of employers and the focus on ‘core skills’—which might appear to have something to offer to the debate but which when first examined seem hard to reconcile and both of them difficult to translate into ‘threshold standards’. However, more detailed examination suggests the possibility of a new synthesis which could, if supported by further research and action by the Higher Education community collectively, answer the question to the satisfaction of all stakeholders whilst preserving essential academic autonomy.
Quality Assessment and ‘Self‐regulation’: the English Experience, 1992–94
Authors: Watson David
Published: August 2007

This paper examines issues in the debate on quality assurance in the English system of higher education as they have developed between the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992 and the review proposed by the Secretary of State at the end of 1994. The main focus is on the development by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) of its method of quality assessment and the call for the restoration of ‘self‐regulation’ in such matters to the institutions. The role of the institutions in developing the methods adopted by the Funding Council is outlined, and the chief criticisms of its effects evaluated. The paper concludes by reviewing options for change in the immediate future and the conditions that will have to be met. It is argued that systems could undoubtedly be improved, but that key elements of ‘self‐regulation’ have already been won in the continuation of external peer review.
Review of Modular Implementation in a University
Authors: Billing David
Published: August 2007

While the pros and cons of modularisation of British degree programmes are often debated, there are few appraisals of large structures following implementation. This paper reports on a substantial review during 1994 of the effectiveness, judged against its aims and incidental effects, of the modular framework at one large and dispersed British university. This was undertaken by a small project team using a questionnaire survey and focus group discussions with staff and students, 18 months after the major implementation.

The results confirm the practicality of the basic framework, but indicate that the stated purposes have been achieved to varying extents. For example, flexibility for students has been increased, although not yet in practice to the extent intended; new inter‐disciplinary degrees have been catalysed. The problems mainly concern the cohesion of student experience and the supporting infrastructure: student records, management information, timetabling and room allocations, educational guidance, module registration. There have also been major problems with the load and timing of assessments.

The Review culminated in proposals from the project team, accepted by the Academic Council, for fine‐tuning rather than for radical change. Some needs for longer term consideration were also identified.