Newman College of Higher Education

Submission to the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (1996)

SECTION 1: THE DEFINITION AND PURPOSES OF HIGHER EDUCATION

1What should be the aims and purposes of Higher Education?

The past three decades have seen a massive growth in vocational and technological education in Higher Education Institutions whilst there has been limited growth in the traditional education programmes for which there exists strong continuing demand. Higher Education should continue to strive to achieve excellence in teaching, research and scholarship. There has been an emphasis in that period on the development of transferable skills that are an increasing capability in most graduates. The graduate employment market has been a precursor of this as recruits are expected to adapt to changing roles in employment; written, oral and electronic communications, human relations and numeracy, are just examples of the skills required. These have evolved as part of the interaction between Higher Education and employers.

Thus, the aims and purposes of future Higher Education should be to build on this platform and to produce graduates who contribute to life through their work but with a responsibility to provide moral leadership in what is perceived to be a declining and selfish society. The aims may be summarised as follows:-

  • to inculcate understanding of specialist subjects;
  • to provide transferable skills that prepare students for employment generally;
  • to reinforce moral and family values as a contribution to improving society;
  • to bring about an awareness and understanding of a multi-cultural society;
  • to be accessible to all as part of the process of lifelong learning;
  • to be transparent and explicit about the provision available.

2What features should be distinctive of Higher Education?

Higher Education should be distinctive through:-

  • the challenge that it sets for those engaging with it;
  • the quality and relevance of the provision it offers to students;
  • the positive and constructive dialogue it maintains with schools, further education providers, employers and professional bodies;
  • its accessibility to those that might benefit from involvement with it;
  • its recognised contribution to the standing of the UK in Europe and the rest of the world.

SECTION 2: TEACHING AND RESEARCH WITHIN HIGHER EDUCATION

3 What forms of higher education provision will students need access to over the next 20 years?

Over the next 20 years, students will need not only access to the current provision, but more imaginative approaches to reflect greater student centred learning. Greater emphasis will be placed on electronic communications, home-based courses and transferability between institutions even within otherwise conventional programmes.

The level of provision currently in place, once standardised from Level 0 to M Level and beyond, will provide the backbone of HE in the UK. The character of the traditional institutions will have to adapt and the new universities and colleges will be encouraged to undertake different but comparable tasks within the system as a whole. It is likely that common degree level skills are identified in the early stages of an individual's education (say at primary school) giving a much better understanding between teachers responsible for pre-16 provision, teachers responsible for FE provision and tutors in HE. The 'lifelong' view rather than the 'terminal' view will prevail.

Methods of delivery will become much more dependent on mode but will recognise APEL. A system supported by central resourcing and increased IT provision will be required. International barriers to education will decline and degrees will amalgamate the best practice across Europe and the USA. An international credit rating will afford a basis for a student contract with specialisation appropriate to the HEI. The HEI will have to provide similarly for the arts undergraduate as it does for the science undergraduate bent on a career in industry or commerce.

In the light of this there will be an even greater need to secure a widely accepted CATS credit framework with an international currency.

4What knowledge, skills and aptitudes will those leaving higher education need over the next 20 years and how can these best be delivered?

There will be an increasing need for transferable and general skills as identified by the HEQC in 1995. Personal and cultural growth will be subsumed in the acquisition of these skills. Emphasis will be placed upon flexibility and the ability to adapt to and create the positive conditions for the rapid assimilation of changes that will characterise growth and development over the next 20 years.

Balance will be defined by individuals in relation to cultural and economic opportunities. It is inevitable that individuals will have and exercise more choice. The curriculum will be negotiated and reviewed on a regular basis - vastly improved communications systems and fast response requirements will make this process essential.

Flexibility will be promoted from early years and employers will have built-in training and personal development schemes because they will also inhabit a rapidly evolving world. Employers will increasingly find themselves participating in the delivery and assessment of specialist material.

5How can effective teaching and learning be identified and how should they be encouraged?

Effective and efficient teaching will require an understanding of content, sequence and pace in relation to audience. A broad and in-depth knowledge base will be promoted through international opportunities for professional exchange. Learning will be promoted through clear aims, goals and objectives centred on cognitive, physical and affective outcomes directly linked to individual needs and abilities. Assessment will thus need to exhibit a range and variety of modes matched to the promotion of pre-agreed competences.

Teaching will be recognised as a skill integral to the efficiency and effectiveness of HE as a whole. The role of staff development and commensurate rewards will thus be as essential for teachers as it has always been for researchers. Teachers will need to have a critical awareness of the full variety of contexts in which they are seeking to promote learning - the Internet will break down geographical barriers but teachers will, nevertheless, need to have the vision and sensitivity to accommodate cultural and geographical variations.

Collaboration between HEI will become the norm. The award of titles for levels of teaching ability achieved through recognised staff development agencies will become the norm and the recognised counterpart of titles presently awarded for scholarship and research.

6What is the place of scholarship (as opposed to teaching and research) in higher education?

Scholarship forms the basis of a continuum between teaching and research. It will draw on contemporary thinking, examine it critically, and provide a baseline for teaching that stimulates the undergraduate and postgraduate alike to open up further avenues for in-depth research often of a collaborative nature. No longer can scholarship be regarded as the preserve of an elite few. Up to one third of the year should be made available for scholarly and intellectual pursuits and all staff should be expected to participate in some measure.

7How can the standards of degrees and other higher education qualifications be assured and maintained?

Standards are changing for the better. The work of the HEFCE, HEQC and the external examination system has provided the thrust for a national set of standards for qualifications at different levels in HE. These are essential as a basis of student mobility alone and certainly as international standards become increasingly relevant. With the increase in participation in higher education the criteria for awards will have to become more specific and more stringent and there will be a need for constant and consistent reference to nationally agreed criteria. Professional bodies will have a salient role in the setting and adjustment of relevant criteria on which awards are based. National criteria will need to be stringently applied and the relationship between degrees and other qualifications such as NVQs and HNDs will need to be much more closely articulated.

8What proportion of higher education resources is it reasonable to use to verify standards of awards and the quality of provision?

The proportion of resources, both externally and internally, used to verify standards of awards and the quality of provision should not exceed 10%. There needs to be a rationalisation of the number of agencies undertaking verification so that duplicative and excessively time-consuming exercises do not distort the business of education itself.

9How should research be carried out in higher education institutions fit with the wider spectrum of research undertaken in the UK?

There needs to be a single national body that draws consideration of research together so as to minimise unnecessary competing lobbies. The global Internet will probably ensure that 'trade secrets' and industrial espionage rapidly become outmoded forms of protectionism. The distinctive nature of individual HEI in the UK means that, if they can retain their individuality within a collective context, they can provide important judgements in many fields to differing approaches to basic, strategic, applied and pre-competitive research.

The European Union has demonstrated how industrial organisations can be drawn successfully into research with HEI in a purposeful and effective manner. Much greater emphasis on support for strategic and interdisciplinary research in HEI can result in real contributions to the UK economy so that it can compete effectively with the Pacific Rim, North American and European economies in the technological context.

10How should public funding for research in higher education institutions be distributed?

There should be a baseline of research funding for HEI engaged in honours degree and postgraduate degree work which should be linked to student numbers overall. Thereafter, a criterion-referenced funding regime should be constructed that relates to outputs in the national interest and to general international standing.

A reconstructed national body, drawing on a membership that is not committed to sustaining the old order, is needed that recognises the respective benefits of dispersion and concentration. Dispersion disseminates knowledge and draws a wider range of expertise and insight, which has to be managed effectively, whilst concentration provides a focus for effort and resources but can become narrow and out of tune with the nation's needs. The dual support system has benefits in that it can help promote the relevant and the worthwhile on the basis of known commercial factors measured against defined criteria. At the same time it allows embryonic but useful research to be pursued in its preliminary stages.

The RAE has inevitably its problems in judging objectively the competing claims of the large and the small given that the judges are drawn in the main from the larger institutions. The Research Councils and the British Academy on the other hand perhaps, because they are dealing with the specific, are seen as having greater objectivity in their judgement.

11How should the organisation of research activity be developed over the next twenty years?

It is essential to give some expectancy of support to all HEI through a baseline of research funding that relates to the number of staff engaging in scholarship and research. The principle of a four or five yearly review of peer-evaluated quality research with related funding is satisfactory, provided that there is some flexibility in supporting research of earmarked promise that reaches fruition within the time span of these reviews.

In research activity involving significant capital investment for specialist buildings, plant and equipment, there is a case for having a number of regional centres; however, it is important that access to relevant external academics is readily negotiable with the HEI hosting the facilities. One disturbing trend with the disappearance of the net book agreement has been the difficulty of access to HEI libraries to academics from outside the host institution; there is a case for having major regional academic libraries independent of or simply managed by HEI to provide ready access to all who can benefit from using them.

Research activity at the highest level will be conducted on a transnational basis across Europe and perhaps beyond. An extension of the concept of the technological centres established in the 1950s and 1960s will form one of those vehicles for such transnational research with academics moving between centres in partner countries. HEI could have a stake in those centres with direct funding nationally.

Interdisciplinary research activity ought to be promoted through forums composed of providers and consumers. The narrow fields of research study need to be supported by elements that allow undergraduates and postgraduate researchers to recognise innovation and utility beyond their own fields. Dissemination through more accessible texts is perhaps a vehicle for creating a wider understanding of scholarship and research.

The extent to which public funds should be used to assist with the costs of research sponsored by third parties such as the EU, charities and private industry is dependent upon the ownership and benefits of the results of it to the nation and society.

Effective links between research providers and the users of that research can be promoted through accessible QA feedback loops that address issues of ethics in relation to resources as well as applicability and cost-benefits. Ethical HEI will seek to promote feedback links not only between themselves and client but also between themselves and the wider international public.

12How can the quality of research in higher education best be maintained and enhanced?

Research should be integral to all honours and postgraduate degrees - including those that are conventionally viewed as 'hands on'. In this way teaching staff and all graduating students develop a creative edge that can feed that quality into working lives through the arts, sciences and social sciences. There may well have to be much greater public understanding and support for research through its demonstrable benefits in the market place, the environment, education, technological advance and the spirit of enquiry in the nation; this will heighten its status and attract the best minds to it.

The career structure of research staff should be compatible with that of teaching and administrative staff - with due recognition given to excellence and outputs. Nevertheless, research should be exposed periodically to the winds of criticism and not regarded as an exclusive club for the favoured few.

SECTION 3: THE SIZE, SHAPE AND STRUCTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

13What should the participation rate in HE in the context of changes in society, the economy and the labour market over the next 20 years?

The increasing pace of change in today's society leads to a demand for lifetime education as the labour market continues to shift towards a skilled and educated work force. Thus participation in post-16 education must continue to grow to the point where virtually every school leaver will be engaged in further and/or higher education. The growth in participation rates in higher education in the past decade has demonstrated that real demand exists for it. Major organisations such as the CBI indicate that participation rates in Higher Education should be increased to meet the needs of commerce and industry. An inseparable link between education and employment will continue to be strengthened.

It is important that growth in participation rates in Higher Education occurs in a planned way so that HEIs can manage the change effectively. The long term target should be for a participation rate of 50% for eighteen year olds with the recognition that mature students, some with considerable resources, will become an increasing additional and significant component in the student population. The modularisation of provision will allow accumulation of credits over much longer periods of time for awards at different levels through an extension of the European Credit Transfer Scheme.

14What factors should determine the appropriate level of participation in HE?

There needs to be a balance particularly between suitably qualified eighteen year olds having an expectation of higher education and the places available for them. It is clear that in the past there has been a mis-match between these two elements and the policy directives of government, e.g. there have be insufficient students in science and technology whilst in the arts, humanities and professionally orientated programmes there have been shortfalls in places available for well qualified students.

The factors therefore that are major determinants of the level of participation are:

  • effective communication to intending students and their parents of the realistic expectations of entry into higher education;
  • numbers of qualified eighteen year olds and mature individuals seeking places;
  • the emphasis placed on the essential drawing in of ethnic minorities and students from social classes III, IV and V into higher education;
  • government initiatives that have prepared intending students for the subject balance on offer;
  • opportunities for employment, rewards in employment and careers after HE experience;
  • ability of graduates to contribute to the community at large;
  • funding levels that allow HE to be delivered to the highest standards.

15How do you expect the student body over the next 20 years to differ in age, background, education, employment, experience and motivation, aptitude and lifestyle from today?

There will be greater diversity in the student population with mature students involved in second career development as well as those seeking simply education at the higher level to prepare them for later life. 'A' levels will no longer be the dominant entry qualification and accredited prior learning will be a significant entry qualification. Students themselves will invest through school or previous careers in contemporary 'learning tools', giving access to information networks, and Higher Education Institutions will provide much more directed learning alongside tutorial support. Even in the scientific and technological subjects simulated experimental work will allow students to develop skills in different ways.