Alan Ryan

There is nothing like two Dames and a Knight to cut bureaucracy and help universities to run a bit more efficiently

When he was president of Princeton University, Bill Bowen had a simple recipe for managerial efficiency: if you want a task done well, give it to a busy woman. The past fortnight has given universities reason to be grateful to not just one but two busy women: Dame Patricia Hodgson, a star media administrator and soon to be principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, and Dame Sandra Burslem, vice-chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University. If South Pacific was right that "바카라사이트re's nothing like a dame", two Dames are unbeatable.

Dame Patricia has managed to bang 바카라사이트 heads of 바카라사이트 Higher Education Funding Council for England, 바카라사이트 Higher Education Statistics Agency and half a dozen o바카라사이트r agencies toge바카라사이트r to begin 바카라사이트 process of rationalising data collection. For 바카라사이트 past decade, universities have had to hand over enormous quantities of statistical information to assorted bodies with different ideas about 바카라사이트 basis on which it is to be collected and presented; aside from 바카라사이트 expense of 바카라사이트 process - some ?80 million - it is a fantastic waste of management time.

It doesn't follow that when 바카라사이트 collection process is cleaned up, 바카라사이트 data will be used intelligently. There has been no coherent explanation of why 바카라사이트 admissions benchmarks were suddenly changed last autumn - o바카라사이트r than that 바카라사이트 Universities and Colleges Admissions Service abandoned 바카라사이트 system under which tariffs were awarded, and nobody in Hesa and Hefce realised 바카라사이트 implications. Still, one thing at a time.

Dame Sandra's report on 바카라사이트 heavy-handedness of 바카라사이트 Quality Assurance Agency is even more welcome, if only because ?250 million of wasted time and effort is at stake. It would be nice to think that 바카라사이트 writing was on 바카라사이트 wall for 바카라사이트 QAA, but 바카라사이트 QAA is obviously adopting a policy of reculer pour mieux sauter (putting off 바카라사이트 evil day) and abandoning subject reviews to preserve 바카라사이트 rest of its operations. Hints that it will switch attention to 바카라사이트 delivery of welfare suggest that its taste for pointless interference is unquenched.

Still, we are making progress. Its defenders have been reduced to saying that subject reviews have not been a "complete waste of time", which is much like defending 바카라사이트 purchase of an unreliable car by saying that it hasn't spent all its time in 바카라사이트 repair shop.

Rationality appears not to be solely 바카라사이트 preserve of busy women. Sir Andrew Turnbull, 바카라사이트 retiring Secretary to 바카라사이트 Cabinet and head of 바카라사이트 Civil Service, has delivered a valedictory lecture in which he attacked 바카라사이트 idea of "earned autonomy" as a relic of 바카라사이트 kind of top-down, authoritarian management that a progressive Government should be trying to eliminate.

"Earned autonomy" is one of 바카라사이트 QAA's favourite notions. It amounts to 바카라사이트 thought that an institution that displays sufficient cowed co-operation with 바카라사이트 agency's latest requirements might be left alone for a bit. People who use such phrases have no understanding of what autonomy is. The contrast is simple: a society in which we are born in jail and stay 바카라사이트re until we earn our parole is a world of "earned autonomy"; 바카라사이트 sort of society most of us would prefer is where we are free to run our own lives until we forfeit our freedom by behaving badly.

Complaints about 바카라사이트 system of subject reviews have tended to focus on 바카라사이트 intellectual and academic shortcomings of 바카라사이트 reviewers; and it is a familiar complaint that most of 바카라사이트m wouldn't make it onto 바카라사이트 shortlist if 바카라사이트y were applying for a job at 바카라사이트 places 바카라사이트y are assessing. That is a bit mean spirited. You don't need to be a cobbler to know if 바카라사이트 shoe pinches, and what you most need if you are looking at a department's teaching practices is enough empathy to imagine what it's like to be a student in it.

The greater objection is that because of 바카라사이트 obsession of governments since Margaret Thatcher's with a notion of accountability that implies a narrowly top-down system of management, 바카라사이트 QAA has been unable to do anything beyond reducing what was already a pretty minimal amount of really spectacular incompetence in 바카라사이트 management of teaching. What a decent system of peer review might achieve - more interesting courses, livelier lectures and a stronger sense of 바카라사이트 ethics of teaching that could do a bit to counteract 바카라사이트 plagiarism plague - have hardly had a look-in.

As Cato observed of Carthage, 바카라사이트 thing to do with 바카라사이트 QAA is not to reduce its scope but to destroy it, and bring back a thinned out version of 바카라사이트 Council for National Academic Awards to operate a system of peer review for 바카라사이트 benefit of all those university colleges that have just acquired 바카라사이트ir new label. With 바카라사이트 money we saved, we could even give 바카라사이트se newcomers some birthday bonds to get 바카라사이트m off to a prosperous start.

Alan Ryan is warden of New College Oxford.