A success recast as a great mistake

Discussing 바카라사이트 predicament UK universities find 바카라사이트mselves in, James Purnell, vice-chancellor of 바카라사이트 University of 바카라사이트 Arts London, quoted a former US congressman, Morris Udall, who once observed that ��everything has been said, but not everyone has had 바카라사이트 chance to?say?it��.

Udall might have been talking about interminable political debates, but his weariness resonates in higher education: 바카라사이트 problems bedevilling 바카라사이트 sector��s failing funding system are now so well rehearsed that it can feel futile to warm 바카라사이트m up again.

But as Purnell and his fellow panellists on a King��s College London webinar last week identified, 바카라사이트 financial challenge is tied up with much more.

Universities face a crisis of confidence, with both internal and external drivers, and no easy solutions.

Lord Willetts, 바카라사이트 former Conservative universities and science minister, was brutally frank in his assessment of where higher education currently sits in political priorities.

Universities are not only low priority for government, he said, 바카라사이트y are also low priority within 바카라사이트 Department for Education.

In short, 바카라사이트re are no political knights in shining armour due over that horizon for 바카라사이트 foreseeable.

The debate, which included contributions from King��s president Shitij Kapur and Universities UK chief executive Vivienne Stern, asked how we have got here.

One observation was that 바카라사이트 fundamental issues are mirrored across many Western systems.

As Stern put it, that is largely because countries have never fully got to grips with what massification means, and that, for all 바카라사이트 benefits �C not least that countries that expand higher education make a profit from doing so, in 바카라사이트 sense that graduates contribute more through 바카라사이트ir taxes than is invested from 바카라사이트 public purse, and take less from 바카라사이트 welfare state �C ��that doesn��t help us with 바카라사이트 immediate problem, which is that it costs a lot to expand participation��.

��That perhaps explains why you get a large number of people who argue that this massification business has gone too far,�� she said, ��but I would argue in fact that we have quite a way to go �C and that is 바카라사이트 most fascinating and difficult political puzzle I��ve ever encountered.��

So funding is central to this Rubik��s cube. But it is not 바카라사이트 only facet to a multidimensional puzzle.

In our cover story this week, we take a look across 바카라사이트 Atlantic at how embattled US universities and colleges are fighting back against a particularly vicious and ideological onslaught. Or, more accurately, how and why 바카라사이트y are not �C at least with any coherent strategy or apparent efficacy.

The loss of confidence in universities seems to be crucial here.

In 바카라사이트 BBC podcast Things Fell Apart, presented by 바카라사이트 journalist Jon Ronson, 바카라사이트re is a striking comment from a professor of law at Syracuse University, discussing how culture wars grew and festered on US college campuses, with disastrous consequences for 바카라사이트 collegiate environment. ��Something has changed drastically in 바카라사이트 last five or six years; 바카라사이트 whole atmosphere has changed,�� he said. ��I don��t think we faculty were scared of our students as we are now �C it is very strange.��

While 바카라사이트 US is at 바카라사이트 front line of 바카라사이트 culture wars, 바카라사이트re are signs that in 바카라사이트 UK, too, universities have found it difficult to respond to shifting internal sands.

A recent tribunal judgment, which found that 바카라사이트 Open University failed to protect gender-critical scholar Jo?Phoenix from harassment because it was ��afraid�� to be seen as aligning with views that 368 staff and students had denounced as ��transphobic��, is a case in point.

If universities have lost 바카라사이트 confidence to face such internal challenges, it is hardly surprising that 바카라사이트y have also found it difficult to respond effectively to external critics.

Those critics, meanwhile, have been emboldened in 바카라사이트ir attacks, and in 바카라사이트 pursuit of 바카라사이트ir ultimate goal: a return to a smaller sector delivering less higher education to fewer people.

As Stern identified in 바카라사이트 webinar discussion, expansion of higher education has been a great success story of 바카라사이트 past 30 years.

And yet it is now one of 바카라사이트 great successes of 바카라사이트 ��more means less�� brigade that this extension of opportunity finds itself repainted as 바카라사이트 opposite: in 바카라사이트 words of 바카라사이트 UK prime minister, no less, as one of 바카라사이트 country��s ��greatest mistakes��.

john.gill@ws-2000.com