Today, the Government published the HE White Paper, marking the biggest reforms to HE since 1992. The changes have been a source of discussion and debate for many months, and after the HE sector’s opportunity to respond to the HE Green Paper, we now see the outcome. Many of the proposals seen in the Green Paper are found in the White Paper, so there are no unexpected surprises.
Higher education: Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice has made the news, being covered in a range of social media. Opinions and feedback has been buzzing on twitter with the #HEWhitePaper hashtag, while coverage has come out from the BBC, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Huffington Post, Wonkhe, THE and many others.
Highlights can be found here.
In the foreward, Minister of State for Universities and Science Jo Johnson has highlighted three areas in which HE must fulfil its potential:
- We need action to address the lack of clear information available to university applicants and the variation in quality and outcomes experienced by some students.
- We must have an open and diverse higher education sector which embraces innovation and in which the excellence of the teaching matches the excellence of the research.
- And, as well as investing in world-class science, we must strengthen our capacity for strategic thinking in research and innovation funding and enhance our capability to undertake cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary research.
HE organisations have commented in an article published by THE.