By Richard Johnstone | 11 March 2013
The government has been urged to reform university funding to adapt to the ‘avalanche’ of changes likely to affect the sector over the next 50 years.
In a report examining the future of higher education, the Institute for Public Policy Research warned there would be ‘intense pressure’ on UK universities in the coming decades. Increasing globalisation, technological change and competition for funding are likely to lead to a host of changes in how universities operate.
Today’s report, An avalanche is coming, set out five models universities will need to choose from in the future. These range from the elite university to ‘mass’ institutions offering courses to a large number of students. Others will specialise in particular industries or skills or focus on lifelong learning or particular regions.
Multipurpose universities offering a wide range of degrees and a broad research programme are likely to ‘face considerable challenges’ as student expectations rise and internet-based learning develops, lead report author Sir Michael Barber said.
Barber, chief education adviser at education publisher Pearson and ex-head of former prime minister Tony Blair’s Delivery Unit, said universities needed new ways to operate to compete with more specialised institutions, online learning systems and training providers.
Each UK university should be clear about which market segment it wanted to serve, and what would set its educational experience and impact apart.
These changes also raised ‘big questions’ about funding of higher education, he added. These included how to support part-time students and those who want to ‘pick and mix’ courses from a range of providers. Ministers also needed to consider how to help universities and cities co-operate to stimulate economic development.
The state’s role as a funder of higher education would remain, but increasingly would be used to ‘incentivise or catalyse changes that the market left to itself would not bring about fast enough’, the report stated. It highlighted the Australian government’s use of research funding to encourage collaboration between universities and business, while in Israel the chief scientist role helps make decisions on which technologies from universities get government backing.
Barber said that the next 50 years could be a ‘golden age for higher education’ if all involved in funding higher education seized the initiative.
He added: ‘Our belief is that the models of higher education that marched triumphantly across the globe in the second half of the twentieth century require radical and urgent transformation. Our fear is that the nature of change is incremental and the pace of change too slow.
‘The traditional multipurpose university with a combination of a range of degrees and a modestly effective research programme has had its day.’
