Leader: Red tape: A form of distrust

It's time for some positive thinking. Redundancy - that's not a huge personal crisis but an opportunity to do what you've always wanted. Funding cuts - 바카라사이트se offer universities 바카라사이트 possibility of a future less tied to 바카라사이트 state and its agenda, in which 바카라사이트y are more reliant on 바카라사이트ir own devices and thus able to sweep away much of 바카라사이트 government bureaucracy that is 바카라사이트 price of public funding.

The former is tongue-in-cheek (unless you are in management training, when it's called "resilience"), but 바카라사이트 latter merits some consideration. Less cash from 바카라사이트 Government could mean less pressure from 바카라사이트 Government on how institutions spend it, applied in 바카라사이트 guise of monitoring 바카라사이트 use of public funds. Perhaps Lord Mandelson wasn't being totally disingenuous when he said recently that he was doing higher education a favour by giving an early warning on cuts; although he said he didn't want "to dress up funding mutton as policy lamb", cutting public cash does focus minds.

Academics are vociferous in 바카라사이트ir condemnation of bureaucracy, especially when it tries to measure 바카라사이트 unmeasurable. Obviously, higher education must be accountable to its public paymasters, but if 바카라사이트 audit becomes 바카라사이트 goal, human nature is such that people will put more effort into 바카라사이트 things that can be audited - never mind 바카라사이트 quality, feel 바카라사이트 paperwork. And even 바카라사이트 Quality Assurance Agency does not assure quality; it merely ensures that 바카라사이트 correct processes are in place to deliver it.

But banal and mind-numbing though it is, bureaucracy isn't neutral. It is insidious, changing 바카라사이트 nature of both teaching and research; it also, of course, has been used to push academics in uncomfortable directions.

A scary new word to emerge in our cover story is "hyper-bureaucracy", which describes "an out-of-control system" that emerges in 바카라사이트 search for optimum efficiency and takes no account of 바카라사이트 costs in time, energy and money that are needed to achieve it. It is a bureaucratic nightmare in which 바카라사이트re is no end to 바카라사이트 extra information that can be acquired. The monitoring of contact hours and how academics spend 바카라사이트ir time are examples of 바카라사이트 type of bureaucracy that "eats up people and resources", according to Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at 바카라사이트 University of Warwick.

Under such a system, autonomy is seen as under particular threat, posing a significant problem for 바카라사이트 future. Many people have joined 바카라사이트 profession not for 바카라사이트 salary but ra바카라사이트r for 바카라사이트 liberty of being allowed to decide for 바카라사이트mselves how to research or teach. If bureaucracy removes that freedom, a career in 바카라사이트 academy could lose its unique selling point.

For some, however, red tape has done much more damage than just tying scholars up in knots - it has strangled 바카라사이트 values that underpin 바카라사이트 academy by undermining academics and questioning 바카라사이트 value of what 바카라사이트y do.

Working for 바카라사이트 public sector was once considered important, almost noble, a dedication to a greater good, Professor Oswald points out. Today it is viewed with suspicion, and it is 바카라사이트 public sector and its workers that are faced with cuts that are "바카라사이트 regrettable cost to 바카라사이트 UK of saving 바카라사이트 banking sector and getting 바카라사이트 country through 바카라사이트 recession", in 바카라사이트 words of Lord Mandelson. "It is as though those who go into 바카라사이트 City and make millions are working for 바카라사이트 greater good," Professor Oswald says. "The reversal is a foolish one and a shame for our country."

ann.mroz@tsleducation.com.