How is the #HEGreenPaper shaping the future of UK #HigherEd?
Today at 8:40, the world of twitter received a text:
@JoJohnsonMP
‘I’m publishing our higher education green paper today, Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility & Student Choice
The Green Paper can be downloaded here.
Universities UK has already responded, announcing that they welcome the Green Paper’s emphasis on protecting the interests of students, competition and choice, as well as widening participation. They do, however, point out that while there is much more to be done, universities have worked on these issues and continue to progress in these areas, and that any assessments of these efforts should not become an additional burden to universities and their staff.
They also state that they will look over the paper and carefully consider its content.
Meanwhile, HEFCE ‘s response somewhat avoided directly commenting on the restructuring of the HE regulatory landscape, and rather commented that they will ‘continue to perform [their] current role and functions to [their] usual high standards throughout this period of deliberation and transition’.
University Alliance has responded with a less neutral position than others, directly drawing attention to Government’s intentions of cutting financial support (to be further detailed in the Comprehensive Spending Review coming out on the 25th Nov) and stating that if efforts outlined in the Green Paper are not appropriately supported, they are just ‘empty words’.
The Royal Society has tweeted that it will hold a Panel discussion on the 8th December on ‘Teaching excellence: Can one size fit all?’, stating that ‘higher education is an enormously diverse sector’ and that it should be recognised that different institutions attract different students and motivations.
The Russell Group also commented on the publication, somewhat defending current university efforts to address concerns and improve HE, but also emphasising the importance of university ‘autonomy’ for success, and that ‘it is vital that any regulation is risk-based and proportionate and does not add to the current burden or stifle innovation’.
UCU’s voiced concerns to the HE Green Paper by stating that the Government failed to ‘clearly set out how its plans would improve the student experience’, and that rather than the TEF being a ‘series of measures to rank teaching’, more was required in terms of ‘proper appraisal’. They further commented that more had to be done to ensure for-profit companies did not access the HE landscape easily, which they claim harms academic quality. UCU also raised decent working conditions for staff as an important issue to ‘tackle widespread job insecurity’, which consequently negatively impacts the HE sector.
Should you be interested in deeper analysis of various sections of the Green Paper, Wonkhe has already featured a range of blogs and analysis covering changes, TEF, the level playing field, and other highlights of the paper. Times Higher Education has also highlighted main themes from the paper. Undoubtedly there will be more to come in the coming days for a while longer.