What will become of higher education? And following the family tradition ... to York
Higher education futures
Last week we asked what higher education would look like in 10 years. Some responses:
There is a positive scenario. Universities, thrust into a free-market environment, will recognise the benefits and economies of scale that can be achieved through digital technologies and distance learning. They will direct scarce teaching and learning funds towards developments in this area rather than continuing to support expensive residential estates and top-heavy administrations. Culturally, students too will come to realise that good quality distance education is as good academically as the traditional sort and more useful to them logistically. The good reputation of UK universities in this area and globally will be sustained.
Unfortunately I see two big problems in the way. The first is that very few UK universities have professional development or administrative frameworks in place to start working in this new way.
The second is that the UK government has forced this change on universities at a period of unprecedented mobility for both students and staff. It is exactly these developments that make it possible for a genuine global market in education to emerge. I retain a loyalty to my institution, but not to the British state, which has just disavowed any responsibility towards me: and it would be easy to move lock, stock and barrel to a European institution which, if it is not already offering English-language versions of its courses, should do so forthwith. As a parent, I will be assuming that my son should in no way consider the UK as his only possible higher education provider.
The British state has just tossed all its universities into a global free market for which they are utterly unprepared. The consequences will cut deep, and last for decades.
Dr Andrew Whitworth
University of Manchester
• Many thanks for your quick survey of possible HE regimes in 10 years' time. Please remind us how many departments, in how many universities, were rated 4* (internationally valuable) or 3* (nationally valuable) in the December 2008 ratings exercise. I wonder which of these will be the first to go under, given the proposed cuts?
John Dixon, Ilkley
• Aside from the wholesale rape of the HE sector, what other impact will these cuts have? Remember Sheffield? Previously the capital of world steel production and cutlery manufacture until the government-managed decline, Sheffield is now home to almost 60,000 students and 8,000 lecturers and staff. The revitalised city economy is utterly dependent upon the spending power of these consumers. Landlords, club owners, cafes, retail outlets, supermarkets all depend upon the student economy. The same can be said for Manchester, Birmingham, Coventry, Leeds etc. This government is not only presiding over the dismantling of one of the best education systems in the world, it is undermining the fabric of many of our university cities.
BobKL via EducationGuardian.co.uk
• I worked in a Russell Group institution for years, and all I ever heard were complaints from students about bad facilities and teaching. University managements have done as much to wreck the reputation of our HE sector as anyone in Whitehall. And as for the treatment of staff in these places, let's not even go there. Let's hope that whatever emerges next is professional, fair and competent.
DoktorSchmidt via EducationGuardian.co.uk
• Ten years from now? Anyone stupid enough to like the idea of an academic career might be looking for a first job, £30,000 in debt after three years study, followed by a master's degree (1-2 years), a doctorate (3-4 years) and a couple of years as a post-doc, taking on, for a pittance, all of the teaching that is still affordable in their discipline. With debts pushing £100,000, they can then start paying back from their princely initial salary – though, not, of course, think of getting a mortgage, unless they have had the wit to marry a banker. Has nobody stopped to wonder where the next generation of lecturers will come from?
J. Michael Walton
University of Hull
The family way
Last week, Joanna Moorhead wrote about taking her daughter to York University, 30 years after going there as a fresher herself.
My understanding was that York University (From major to minor, 19 October) was set up as a new Oxbridge: collegiate, a little bit elitist but with a contemporary twist (I remember attending Professor Wilfred Mellors' Beatles lectures). Now it turns out it's emulating its forebears by becoming a family tradition. Not that it's news to us.
Ruth Eversley BA (Ebor) language 1971-75, sister of Judith Eversley BA (Ebor) language and philosophy 1969-73; mother of Laura Baker, currently studying English language and linguistics; Lees, Oldham