left to my own devices – occasional thoughts on higher education

Photo by Unsplash from Freerange Stock

Place.

Sometimes words are used so frequently that they risk losing meaning, and/or prompting cynicism.

Working in the higher education sector there’s perhaps a danger of this happening with the word ‘place’. Visions, strategies, plans, grant applications; all teem with references to place. Sometimes with a repetitiveness, and lack of facility in its use, that would embarrass an infant LLM. 

But while familiarity can breed contempt, the frequent use of ‘place’ is one of those cases where ubiquity shouldn’t undermine its value.  Having a sense of where we are (and the implications of that for our sense of our selves, our present and our future) is essential for each of us as individuals; for our communities, including the university which is one of our communities; and for the higher education sector.

disorientation

Among the many current challenges for higher education in the UK, there is a lot of uncertainty.  We know as a sector that we’re somewhere.  It’s just difficult to know where, in many ways and for many reasons.

To identify just three …

A government that wishes the sector well, but as with so many other areas which entered office having given little, if any, thought to how it would realise the pledges and aspirations it set out in the lead up to and during the 2024 general election.  With the consequence that the sector is waiting with baited breath, and nervousness, for the outcome of the government’s review of higher education feeding into its broader mission on skills.

The contrast between the international standing of the UK higher education sector, and the transformative impact of what the sector does on the lives, society and economy of the country; alongside the way the sector has become a focus of many elements of the current culture wars that have come to dominate our politics. How far, and in what ways, is the sector valued?

The extreme financial challenges faced by the sector; persistent undermining of all of its core income streams, leading to the extensive job losses in the sector over the last 12 to 18 months.  Accompanied by the fear that we are just in the early stages of what may become a repeating cycle in coming years, given the gloom of financial predictions for the sector. While at the same time hoping that some recent positive signs (e.g. on international student recruitment, and potential index-linking of home undergraduate fee levels) may mitigate this.

All of these, and much more, gesture towards a sector that while it still (rightly) believes in the positive contribution it makes, is less certain of its place in our culture and society than it was a few years ago.

change

Of course there has been much written about all the aspects of this.  And universities are not without agency, indeed responsibilities, in responding to such uncertainty.

The reductions in staffing levels, and the resulting changes to how our universities function and operate, are one such response.  Essentially seeking to reduce costs in response to declining income streams.

The human impact of this is and continues to be significant. The impact on the education, and broader experience, of our students; and of course on those who work in the sector as colleagues leave our universities and those who are left seek to remake their activities, processes and communities in light of these changes.

governance, leadership and change

This raises challenges for organisational governance and leadership.  It also highlights key questions about the quality of this governance and leadership.

Yes, these include issues about the wisdom of approaches to generating income (e.g. the realism and sustainability of student number planning), and how this has been used (e.g. the extent of capital spending).  Both are important, and have received much attention (though not always as thoughtful and nuanced as it deserves and needs to be).

But it also raises interesting questions about how well governors and leaders understand their universities, as they seek to deliver the financial savings and revised ways of working that are essential to financial sustainability.

In some areas of a university’s activity, effective and successful operation is the result of relatively clear and reasonably understood cause-and-effect chains.  In such areas changing approaches to operate with reduced resource may not be easy, but may be possible.

For many other areas, however, the reason why an activity is effective and/or successful is less clear.  Cause and effect changes are less certain, and can only be discerned on the basis of significant, context-specific understanding.  Here achieving change without undermining effectiveness, the things that make an activity successful, is much more complex and difficult. And uncertain.

judgment

A key aspect of organisational governance and leadership when making the types of choices that universities have needed to make over the last year, and which they continue to face, is making good judgments about which areas of activity fall into which of these two categories, recognising that no single approach will apply to all areas of a university’s activity.

It’s only as we start 2025-26, and work through the implications of the decisions taken in 2024-25 to address the financial challenges our universities face, that we’ll be able to determine the quality of the decisions that have been made by leaders abd governors; and the quality of the judgment that have led to these.  And hopefully help us feel a little clearer about our sense of place as, and within, universities.