by Derek Morrison, first posted 4 November 2009 updated 5 & 17 November 2009
N.B. The views expressed in this posting are the product of this author alone and should not be construed as necessarily representing the views of any other individual or organisation.
Lord Peter Mandelson’s super-ministry the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) published its long trailed new framework for higher education yesterday under the title Higher Ambitions. Others will highlight different aspects of this long report but I was particularly looking for any references to the equally long trailed online learning focus of earlier BIS announcements, e.g. ‘0oooo’ comes after ‘Eeee’? (Auricle, 24 June 2009).
So what conceptual bites (bytes) are in there? For the purposes of this posting I’ve focused mainly but not exclusively on the ‘e’ aspects.
Chapter 4: The Student Experience of Higher Education, paras 10 and 11, page 74
“10. The Government agrees with the National Student Forum’s view that each institution needs to provide “a clear understanding of what it will feel like to study subject x at institution yâ€. This greater access to information is an essential means of enabling students to choose between courses, and in doing so to signal their expectations of higher education and drive course modification and improvement. “
“11. To do this, students need comparable sources of information that will allow them to make informed decisions and choices. This information should include clear signposting for students who want to progress through more vocational pathways, or study more flexibly, by varying the length or the intensity of study, studying remotely, and using the latest technology. “
Chapter 4: The Student Experience of Higher Education, paras 25 and 26, page 78
“25 Chapter one stressed the Government’s commitment to greater flexibility in access to higher education. That includes making the best use of digital technology and e-learning. This can also play a role in improving quality and the overall learning experience. Technological advancements are providing opportunities to enhance contacts and two-way feedback between students and academic staff. Digitisation has the potential to increase the range of information and content available to all students, through developments such as open course/learning materials. The potential of communications technologies to extend the reach of our universities is one of the most exciting aspects of our higher education today. Students should leave university with a competent mastery of these modes of communication and information transfer. ”
“26 As Ron Cooke’s contribution to the debate on the future of higher education pointed out in 2008, there is some leading edge practice in our universities, but it is rather isolated. The use of new learning technologies is too often left solely to individual pioneers striving for progress in their departments. This will perhaps always be a more powerful force for change than institutional strategies, but nonetheless we support Professor Cooke’s call for university leaderships to take responsibility for driving the use of new technologies throughout institutions. Information about how such technologies are used in each course will be available to students as they choose their options, and a digitally self-confident generation of school leavers will know what to look for – and what to avoid. Well-informed student choice will be the most powerful force for change over the next decade. “
Chapter 5: Engaging with our Communities and the Wider World, paras 33 – 36, pages 92-93
33 The continuing development of e-learning is a vital element in supporting improvement of teaching and the student experience and in enabling the personalisation and flexibility that students and employers expect. We will empower our universities to be world leaders in the growing market in transnational education based on e-learning.
34 Whilst the performance of our institutions in transnational education and online distance learning is already impressive, we need to build on this to ensure that we remain a global leader. Our aspiration is to ensure that UK courses are the first choice for international students who want to study but who do not want or are unable to travel. We will therefore build on the international reputation of the overall “British Brand†of higher education, and on distance learning at institution level, to ensure our strategic investment in digital higher education supports this existing area of strength.
35 HEFCE have established an impressive taskforce to help take forward the aim of helping UK higher education remain a world leader in online learning and grow its market share by 2015. The Task Force is chaired by Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, with representatives at senior level from the private and public sector, including Microsoft, Apple, the British Council, HEFCE, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), and Universities UK. The BBC has agreed to advise the task force as and when appropriate. The taskforce met for the first time in September 2009. It will identify opportunities for investment and innovation within and between universities and colleges, and with the private sector, in the development of online learning, including the building of critical mass. Through HEFCE the Government will be prepared to provide seedcorn funding on a competitive basis for university-private sector partnerships which will strengthen our market position …
The members of the taskforce are: Dame Lynne Brindley (Chair), Chief Executive, British Library; Professor Martin Bean, Vice-Chancellor, Open University; Steve Beswick, UK Director of Education, Microsoft; Professor Philip Garrahan, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Sheffield Hallam University; Professor Sharon Huttly, Professor and Dean of Studies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Sir Alan Langlands, Chief Executive, HEFCE; Mike Munn, Director for Higher Education for UK and Ireland, Apple; Don Olcott, Chief Executive, The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education; Professor Sir Tim O’Shea, Principal, Edinburgh University and Chair of JISC; Professor Gilly Salmon, University of Leicester; Professor Rick Trainor, Principal, Kings College London; Kevin Van-Cauter, Higher Education Adviser, British Council; Martin Williams, Director, Higher Education, BIS; Professor Caroline Gipps, Vice-Chancellor, University of Wolverhampton; Richard Halkett, Director of Strategy and Research, Cisco; Subroto Mozumdar, President of Higher and Professional Education, Pearson Education Ltd; Aaron Porter, Vice President (Higher Education), National Union of Students; John Widdowson, Principal, New college Durham and Chair of Mixed Economy Group. Advisor: Judith Nichol, Knowledge Partnerships Manager, BBC
36 We believe that, in a rapidly expanding global market, institutions based here have a unique opportunity to provide education in many different forms. The UK’s advantages in research and teaching are supported by our established strengths in both accreditation and educational publishing. The potential to develop international education through partnerships with broadcasters and internet service providers is considerable, and in our view will shape and strengthen the higher education sector over the coming decade.
Annex B, Recommendations from ‘Unleashing Aspiration: The Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions’ in Higher Ambitions, Page 110
Recommendation 31: The Government, working with the Higher Education Funding Council for England, should prioritise investment in e-learning infrastructure to extend the possibilities of remote and online learning … A new task force led by Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, is now working on how we can be world leaders in distance learning. The goal is to help UK higher education remain a world leader in online learning, and grow its market share by 2015. This will underpin the best use of digital technology and e-learning for home students, including as a tool for widening access.
Although strictly relevant to my focus on the ‘e’ aspects the innocuous sounding chapter 6 of the report encapsulates some potential seeds of “turbulence”.
Chapter 6: Supporting a World Class System, paras9 and 12, pages 96- 97, 105
9 Over the next decade, we expect that more universities will face up to hard choices about identifying the areas where they can really achieve excellence, and specialising in those. Very few English universities will be able to achieve excellence across the full range of university activity. Success in some chosen areas, or success as a member of a group pooling its collective resources, may be more achievable goals. However, that will require new levels of sophisticated inter¬institutional cooperation. This is a genuine challenge given the understandable focus of each institution on its own needs and success.
12. A more constrained fiscal climate will make achieving value for money even more important for universities. For public policy makers there is the less obvious but equally serious challenge that a focus on institutions at risk of failure can divert support and capacity away from the most entrepreneurial and imaginative. In general, our position is that the role of state funding should be to facilitate change, not to hold it back. It should be to reward successful innovation, rather than to underwrite institutions that have not been able to embrace change successfully. And it should go to match fund those who are successful in unlocking other sources of finance, rather than to compensate those who fail to do so.
31 In other sectors of the economy with a large number of providers, a future of increased but diversified opportunities coupled with pressures on revenue streams would lead to significant merger activity. It is more likely that the number of universities will decrease than increase. The Government will not force mergers, but we do not oppose them, and in some cases there may be a case for public investment to support mergers. It will be for the Funding Council to decide whether special funding to facilitate any merger proposal represents good value for the taxpayer. It is more likely that there will be public value in such funding to support merger between high performing universities, than in rescuing a weaker university.
And as regards mentions of the Higher Education Academy and other agencies?
Chapter 4: The Student Experience of Higher Education, paras 17 and 23, pages 75 and 78
17. The Academy promotes the professionalisation of the teaching workforce by gathering evidence and research on developments in pedagogy, and by disseminating good teaching practice. The Academy’s support for subject communities in considering how courses prepare students effectively for graduate employment has been valuable. We want to see this work made more visible. We will be discussing with HEFCE and with the Higher Education Academy how its profile in quality enhancement can be raised, and how the strengths identified in a recent review of the Academy can be further developed.
23 Plagiarism attracts significant media attention and is damaging to public perceptions of higher education. Expectations of students with respect to the originality and referencing of their work must be clear and unequivocal, and guidance about what constitutes plagiarism must be instilled early in students. The higher education sector rightly takes this issue seriously and institutions will need to continue to develop their policies for dealing with plagiarism, building on the significant work already underway. The Higher Education Academy/Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Academic Integrity Service provides guidance and practical support to higher education institutions and helps promote a culture of academic integrity in UK higher education. The sector should publicise the actions that it takes to address, detect and penalise plagiarism.
Chapter 5: Engaging with our Communities and the Wider World, para 14, page 86
14 Through the Higher Education Academy and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, we will encourage universities to develop capability amongst curriculum designers and institutional leaders to embed sustainability into all areas of the curriculum. This does not simply mean technical skills, important though these are. If we are to confront successfully the economic and social challenges implied by sustainable development, the future leaders of society will need wide perspectives and mental flexibility. These are fitting priorities for any higher education curriculum.
Chapter 6: Supporting a World Class System, para 33, page 106
33 The willingness of universities to embrace change successfully will depend to a great extent on the effectiveness of those leading them. In 2004 we established the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (LFHE), to provide programmes to equip leaders of modern universities for success. This has now become an established feature of the landscape. 131 serving Vice-Chancellors have participated in Leadership Foundation programmes, 80 per cent of the total.
Commentary
So what to make of this?
First it’s a framework and like all frameworks should it eschews operational detail, but it certainly declares political intention. In particular, the messages contained in the Supporting a World Class System chapter appear to offer little solace to institutions worried about their future.
Second, we must remember this is the English HE sector being referred to. Scotland and Wales have their own devolved systems. Nevertheless, because higher education is not a closed system some of what is contained within Higher Ambitions will at a minimum be of ‘interest’ to other nations even if the impacts (expected and unexpected) may not be instantly perceived.
Third, the framework is being published by a government that is soon to go to the country to seek its mandate to continue to govern. My personal view is that it would be foolish to assume that all that Higher Ambitions contains would necessarily bite the dust if the incumbents fail to be returned to government. Higher Ambitions also encapsulates at least some of the ideas put forward and expressed by the other major political parties.
Fourth, the focus on online learning (with a distance twist) continues to intrigue me because this would actually represent a major change in strategic emphasis for many universities (if operationalised at the scale necessary to be of interest at government level and to accrue the major economic benefits envisaged by BIS). The potential of this particular aspect of government thinking will become clearer when the outputs and outcomes of the Online Learning Taskforce are tasted (and tested) by the sector and if the idea continues to be of interest to a new government (of whatever hue).
MEDIA COMMENTARY ON HIGHER AMBITIONS AND ASSOCIATED ARTICLES
- Universities overhaul will make them more inclusive, says Mandelson (Guardian, 3 November 2009)
- What are universities for? (Independent, 3 November 2009)
- Mandelson is playing the altruistic antelope on universities (Guardian, 4 November 2009).
- Scottish universities ‘at risk from Mandelson plan’ (Times, 4 November 2009)
- Undergraduates should be given ‘consumer rights’, says Lord Mandelson (Times, 4 November 2009)
- Labour’s campus revolution (Independent, 4 November 2009)
- Business firmly woven into the fabric of new framework (Times Higher, 5 November 2009) – N.B. reader’s online comments add considerable further value to this piece.
- Peter Mandelson’s assault on science (Independent, 17 November 2009)
