Good morning everyone. It’s a great pleasure for me to be able to join you this year.
UUK Conference, Edinburgh
10 September 2009
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It is great to be in Edinburgh, and to see an example of the breath of higher educations intuitions – ancient and modern, generalist and specialist. Their contrasting histories, strengths and plans for the future illustrate not only what makes Scottish higher education such a vibrant place, but also the reasons why I feel such excitement when I look around British universities as a whole.
Your President said earlier that it’s wrong to see our university system as a hierarchy rather than as a series of institutions with overlapping and contrasting missions. That is a view with which I associate myself fully.
Yesterday evening over dinner I was glad to renew some of the acquaintances I’ve made in the English university system. But I was also especially pleased to have the chance to meet university leaders from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
And it was, of course, a special pleasure to be able to congratulate Tim O’Shea on his appointment as chairman of JISC.
Last year in Cambridge, I know that John Denham spoke to you about how many new developments there had been for the sector in England in the first year of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
As if to prove John’s point, the world has now moved on and DIUS itself is now a part of history. But change continues. Not least here at UUK with the arrival of Steve Smith and, only last week, Nicola Dandridge. I wish them both well in their new posts.
Of course, Steve has already made a significant contribution to the debate on higher education - whose progress was the theme of John’s speech. The debate has carried on since the creation of the new Department and is now moving towards its conclusion.
Autumn will be busy, and this year feels busier than last. A new framework for higher education in England will be presented by Peter Mandelson.
We’ve made clear that we want the Framework to describe the vision of how Government will support universities and employers in working together to balance the supply and demand of high-level skills and the many other economically valuable things that our universities deliver.
My colleagues and I see universities as being central to our efforts to build a strong economy. My Department’s expenditure on higher education in England this year will be over £10 billion. And that’s not including more than £3 billion of the UK science budget, a large part of which of course goes to universities. One of the ways the taxpayer’s investment in the system is repaid is in the stimulus for economic growth that it delivers back.
The economic focus of the Framework will be of particular benefit to the key growth sectors we identified in the New Industry, New Jobs strategy paper. We are also working with HEFCE to look at how we can develop the funding model to help the sector further increase its economic contribution. That may mean making a larger proportion of funding contestable. But that raises important and complex questions, and our thinking on it is still developing.
That’s why the Framework is likely to ask you to move further and faster down the path you're already on towards greater emphasis on economic outcomes. But it does not mean that we intend to take an instrumentalist approach to higher education, nor to abandon the belief that the pursuit of knowledge is a valuable end in itself.
The recession is producing challenging times for universities, just as it is for other sorts of businesses. And those of us in Government face real challenges ahead, too.
I don’t pretend the current position is easy and that we don’t have a huge task before us. But it’s a task we are determined to carry out successfully. And I know it’s one in which we have the full support of the university sector.
Let me quote just a few examples of what you’re already doing to help.
This year, there will be more students going to university than ever before, taking advantage of the record number of funded places on offer. We expect 50,000 more accepted applicants than just three years ago. And we announced in July an extra 10,000 places to support the new industries new jobs initiative. This will help to absorb the extra demand for places we have seen this year and the pressures your institutions have faced during clearing.
I must pause here to say a special thank-you to those institutions that have taken up the challenge of making these new places available at short notice.
We have also continued to expand Foundation Degrees and look likely to achieve our target of 100,000 participants next year. Likewise, the signs are that we hit our target of 5,000 employer co-funded higher education places this year.
Not only are we working to increase the vocational impact of higher education itself. We’re also trying to create more routes into higher education for people who hold vocational qualifications. Already, over 100,000 of them enter university every year. We need to grow that number, and grow it rapidly.
The interim findings of a study led by Professor Joy Carter raised a number of issues around progression to higher education through vocational routes that are helping to inform our thinking around the new Framework. I look forward to receiving her final report this autumn.
Clearly, there remain longstanding difficulties associated with any effort to promote parity of esteem between vocational and academic pathways. Many of these seem to stem from some people’s scepticism about the value of vocational qualifications and limited - albeit growing - exposure to them.
That’s why I warmly welcome the work that’s being done to improve the position. I want to especially welcome the progress that has been made towards a tariff rating of apprenticeship frameworks.
We have brought the worlds of higher education and of work closer together in other ways, too.
We have created the Economic Challenges Investment Fund in which HEFCE and the sector jointly fund initiatives to help economic recovery and which will benefit over 11,000 business and 50,000 individuals. Without your sense of initiative and willingness to roll your sleeves up that just wouldn’t be happening.
And we have introduced many graduate internships. There has been strong progress on these. We have hit our initial target of 5,000 places early, and are now moving well beyond it.
So I’m very pleased to be able to announce today the creation of up to 1,500 more placement opportunities in a new Graduate Low Carbon Future Leaders scheme.
Initially, these will help support the low-carbon marine energy industry in the South West of England and the low carbon vehicle industry in the North East. The scheme will benefit graduates by giving them hands on experience and improving their job readiness in an emerging sector of the economy where future jobs growth is predicted. Your universities will be key partners in delivering this scheme.
While I’m on the subject of the importance of giving young people practical experience of work, I want to say a special word about apprenticeships, which were a subject close to my heart even before I became Skills Minister back in 2007.
Apprenticeships have always laid a firm foundation for careers in manual trades. But we’ve proved that these days there’s no reason why the same model shouldn’t be used to open up routes into less traditional areas – like the professions and the public services. That includes the university sector. Some institutions are already to offering apprenticeships, but many others aren’t. And that’s why I want to encourage those of you whose institutions aren’t yet involved to take advantage of the work UUK and GuildHE doing to help institutions which have offered apprenticeships to share their experience with others.
UUK’s publication From Recession to Recovery showed very clearly that our universities are standing by Britain at a time when what universities produce has never been more necessary. And in its turn the Government has stood by them. In funding terms, universities have had it good for more than a decade.
Nevertheless, it’s no secret that current levels of public investment are unlikely to be sustainable in future. And indeed, I know that you’re already feeling the pressure that comes with the need to make more efficiencies.
The sector’s future prospects depend on how you face up to the financial challenges that are coming. Not least, that includes by taking a disciplined approach to pay and pensions.
But there are also more positive steps you can take, like continuing to diversify your sources of income by encouraging endowments or providing bespoke training. And by making the most of the knowledge that you produce.
Even in a tight spending environment, there’s no reason why your income can’t increase. Steve Smith spoke earlier about the proportion of GDP that this country spends on higher education being half that spent by the USA. And he’s right. But spending relative to GDP isn’t just about the Government. Private investment in universities has not kept pace with the huge increases in public spending that the last decade has brought. Any sensible analysis can only conclude that you need to find new ways to leverage more private money into the system.
And you need to make sure you take advantage of opportunities – international as well as domestic – whenever they arise.
I’ve just got back from a trip to the USA. There, President Obama recently announced a new billion dollar investment in science and research as part of its stimulus programme. That means a lot of money going into US universities and a lot of US universities looking for research partners abroad. Officials in the Department of Commerce, the White House, and in universities confirmed the importance of this investment.
While many British institutions are able to make some use of partnerships individually, the British Ambassador to the US was clear that corporately and collaboratively there is more to do.
That is why I have set up a new advisory forum under my chairmanship – the International Education and Research Advisory Forum – to bring together representatives from across Government and the higher education sector, including the British Council, to develop a more strategic and joined-up focus to our international work. The Forum had its first meeting earlier in the summer and will meet again in November.
Benefiting from knowledge transfer and the intellectual property that flows from it depends on a strong research base, a strength that was confirmed by the results of last year’s Research Assessment Exercise. A large part of the value of the RAE was that it was a UK-wide exercise that allowed the benchmarking of all our institutions. And that is why I welcome the involvement of the authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the development of the new Research Excellence Framework.
In a few weeks time HEFCE will be consulting on proposals for the REF. For the first time, the REF will explicitly assess the impact that this excellent research has on the economy and society.
And since these impacts are things that happen outside of the academic realm, the consultation will propose that the panels assessing impacts will include a large proportion of the end-users of the research - businesses, public services, policymakers and so on – rather than just academics commenting on each others’ work.
I want the REF to send a strong signal and give a strong financial incentive for departments to not only do excellent research but find ways of helping turn that into impacts that benefit the economy and society as a whole.
Despite some people’s fears, we will not be solely asking panels to count the number of spinout companies or income from business. We will want panels to assess a whole range of impacts. Improved products and services for business are important, but so are things like improved quality of life, and better evidence-based Government policy-making.
Of course, the benefits to universities of producing research with impact aren’t only found in public funding. So it’s in everyone’s interests that we help you manage your institutions’ intellectual property effectively. That’s an area in which the new Department can help all UK universities. So we’re currently working with the Intellectual Property Office and UUK to update the handbook on intellectual property that they published in 2003.
Despite all I’ve said so far, I know some people don’t think our universities are doing a good job.
Last month, the chairman of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee criticised you for failing to safeguard standards.
Personally, I regard Phil Willis’ comments – intentionally made on a Saturday morning to get maximum media coverage – as a piece of political grandstanding rather than a serious contribution to the debate. And I think the facts contradict him at every point.
I don’t recognise the picture he painted. I don’t think we need what amounts to a national curriculum for higher education and we certainly don’t need the ossification of the university system that would inevitably follow. And I don’t believe that diversity in the system is the same thing as inconsistency.
But having said that, I think there does remain a real challenge for you on quality in a consumer-driven 21st century.
Even if you aren’t complacent about quality, you sometimes appear to be. I think you have to recognise that and deal with it. This is indeed another area in which you have to get better at telling your story.
For English and Northern Irish institutions there will be an excellent opportunity to do just that over the coming months as you contribute to the development of the quality assurance system that will follow the current audit cycle. I know that the sector bodies are committed to developing a quality assurance system that is flexible and transparent as well as rigorous.
Clear and accurate information must be a big part of that. Learners need to know up front what their courses will involve, how much teaching they’ll get, how much independent learning is expected, and how they’ll be assessed. They should also know what happens to students when they graduate.
That’s why I’m very pleased to announce that HEFCE will be sponsoring research to find out just what information potential students want, so that they go to university understanding what to expect of their student experience.
Again, I’m not advocating a one-size-fits-all approach to things like contact hours and assessment methods. University teachers, like good teachers everywhere, need the space to express themselves and inspire their students. But I see no reason why, in any properly-planned course of study, it should not be possible to give prospective students a very clear idea of what they should expect. Quite apart from anything else, it’s more fun to teach well-prepared and motivated learners than students to whom everything comes as a surprise.
And I’m sure it won’t surprise you that this is a subject on which the Higher Education Framework will have more to say.
Quality is one of the main factors that attracts overseas students here. And the growing internationalisation of university curricula can only improve the quality of our own students’ experience.
And as we saw earlier this week, the most recent Education at a Glance figures from the OECD continue to provide evidence of our strong performance.
I know that many of you have been very concerned about the ability of the new points-based visa system to cope with the traditional August spike in applications from international students. I have been working closely with my Home Office colleague Phil Woolas to ensure that we get the balance right between maintaining robust visa arrangements whilst at the same time ensuring that institutions are able to recruit genuine international students simply and efficiently.
I was pleased to be able to host a meeting with Phil and vice chancellors towards the end of July to thrash out what were a few outstanding issues. And the latest information I have from the UK Borders Agency suggests that the teething problems that were experienced earlier in the year have by and large been resolved.
But internationalisation is not simply about numbers of international students choosing to come to the UK. The international activities of our institutions are as diverse as the sector itself. And increasingly we are seeing a greater emphasis on partnership-building and collaboration.
This is very welcome. But, as I said earlier, I also believe there is scope for this to be taken to a higher level as we look ahead. And here I think we in Government can help by providing a more strategic and clearer context within which institutions carry out their international education and research activities.
I know you have chosen European higher education as one of the themes of this conference and that is welcome. I attended the meeting of Ministers responsible for the Bologna process in April. One of the main issues we discussed was the importance of student mobility. And that’s a big challenge for you. We know from experience that compared to countries like France and Germany, significantly fewer of our students choose to spend time abroad.
I take that seriously. And it won’t come as a surprise to you that Peter Mandelson does as well. From our discussions I can tell you that his current responsibilities for trade as well as his experience as EU Trade Commissioner means he sees great value of initiatives like Bologna and the various European mobility programmes.
Employers tell us that they value the kinds of skills and experience acquired through periods of study abroad. And I have no hesitation in saying that is an area where we need to raise our game. So I urge all of you to look at ways in which course curricula can be adapted and made more flexible to include the possibility of short periods spent abroad. And I am not just talking Europe here – we should also think further afield in the big developing economies such as China and India.
I remain of the view that stepping up our efforts to “internationalise” university curricula can only improve the quality of our students’ experience.
I firmly believe that our university system and the values that it stands for must remain one of the forces that brings our society together and keeps it together. It has shown itself time and again one of the most powerful forces for social and economic progress that we have.
And that’s why it’s a pity that the general public doesn't know enough about the contribution made by higher education to national life. Some universities have become very adept at marketing themselves internationally. But nationally, public perceptions of the social and economic successes of higher education throughout the UK often remain outdated.
About a year ago, I gave a speech in which I said that the contribution of British universities to their communities is every bit as strong as that of their US counterparts. That has been borne out by all you’ve done since then to help your communities in what is a difficult time.
But when I spoke last year I also pointed out the contrast between how much American universities make of their economic and social contribution and how little many of our own institutions do. Visit the website of any US State university and you’ll see what I mean. The payback that taxpayers get for their investment will be right up front – in words, in figures and in case studies.
I called on you then to emulate that example. For you not only to be proud of what you do, but to make the most of communicating it.
I repeat that call today. And in the current spending climate, I hope its importance will not be lost on you.
That’s why I’ve asked the Design Council to convene a workshop discussion of how the university sector can communicate its value better to a broader public. I welcome both UUK’s involvement in this work and Steve Smith’s acknowledgement of its importance in his speech earlier on.
I don’t want the outcomes of the workshop to be either soft soap or hard sell. But I do want us all to emerge with a better strategy for showing, not just stakeholder and those with an informed interest in higher education but also the people who pay for so much of higher education, the scale of the return that modern universities give on their investment.
20 years ago, a policy document called “Meet the challenge, make the change” was published by the Labour Party. In many ways, it marked the start of the process that brought us into government in 1997. The final thing I want to do today is to urge you to be equal to the challenges that change now poses for you. To be flexible enough to do what has to be done to keep pace with a changing world, yet strong enough to uphold the great values for which our universities have always stood.
How well you do that today will determine whether you’re able to deliver everything Britain asks of its universities tomorrow.
Thank you.
