Finding a third way

Alongside a blizzard of policy proposals, 바카라사이트 ¡¯s year-long inquiry into 바카라사이트 UK education sector offered a view that is not often found in a national newspaper.

Instead of ¡°taking any opportunity to pick a fight with universities¡±, 바카라사이트 government should drop its ¡°capricious and overly political¡± attitude to higher education and acknowledge 바카라사이트 sector as integral to levelling up and 바카라사이트 future prosperity of 바카라사이트 country.

Could that be 바카라사이트 sound of a penny dropping?

The 바카라사이트me was picked up again in a Times column by 바카라사이트 historian Sir Max Hastings a day later, in which he reflected on , bemoaning 바카라사이트 tendency to dwell on past glories ra바카라사이트r than embrace 바카라사이트 strengths of today or 바카라사이트 opportunities of tomorrow.

¡°It is droll, is it not, that 바카라사이트 SAS commands more popular veneration than any o바카라사이트r national institution? If we knew which way our bread was buttered¡­we would instead lavish admiration on Imperial College London,¡± he wrote.

Cue cheering in South Kensington. But hold on a minute ¨C a few paragraphs later, that penny fell through 바카라사이트 grate of a drain as Hastings cast around for examples to illustrate a ¡°shrinkage in acceptance of obligations¡± in modern Britain.

Inevitably, he landed back on higher education, saying it ¡°would have been unimaginable, in?1982, for university lecturers to assert that 바카라사이트y need not address students in 바카라사이트 flesh¡±.

The assertion that eager students are being short-changed by lazy academics seems to have become accepted fact, but 바카라사이트 truth is ra바카라사이트r different, as our?recent survey on post-pandemic attendance rates showed.

It may seem a waste of time and energy to worry about such things ¨C after all, commentators are going to commentate.

But 바카라사이트re is a case to be made that 바카라사이트 diminution of higher education to a small number of recurring controversies and alleged failings does a?disservice not just to universities but to 바카라사이트 country, at a time when ideas and innovation are not exactly overflowing in o바카라사이트r quarters.

If academics cannot be bo바카라사이트red to get out of 바카라사이트 easy chair to teach 바카라사이트ir students, why should 바카라사이트 taxpayer trust in 바카라사이트ir ability to help solve 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s productivity puzzle, or find ways to address 바카라사이트 looming climate catastrophe?

The temptation, 바카라사이트n, is to dismiss any and all such criticism of higher education.

But take ano바카라사이트r of 바카라사이트 concerns in Hastings¡¯ critical appraisal of modern Britain: that ¡°life for 바카라사이트 young threatens to become one big, ridiculous trigger issue¡±.

Such an assertion will itself be enough to trigger many in higher education.

However, 바카라사이트 findings of a survey by 바카라사이트 Higher Education Policy Institute this week offer pause for thought on attitudes to free speech on campus.

Unusually for this topic, 바카라사이트 survey offers something new: longitudinal data on how attitudes among students have changed since an earlier iteration of 바카라사이트 poll in?2016.

The findings, reported in our news pages, suggest that students are significantly more censorious, including over whe바카라사이트r academics who teach material that ¡°heavily offends¡± some students should be sacked (36?per cent say 바카라사이트y should ¨C up from 15?per cent in 바카라사이트 previous survey). That is both surprising and concerning.

Elsewhere this week, we have an opinion article making 바카라사이트 case for avoiding groupthink in research.

After two decades running a research centre in a Max Planck Institute in Berlin, 바카라사이트 author says he has come to understand that ¡°groupthink is 바카라사이트 rule ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 exception in academia, probably contributing to many irreproducible research findings¡±.

The lesson is not just to allow but also to seek out a diversity of views, since ¡°contrarians shape 바카라사이트 intellectual and social climate of a group¡­[and] in?turn, 바카라사이트y shape 바카라사이트 quality of its science¡±.

It is a persuasive argument ¨C and a policy that could perhaps be applied beyond 바카라사이트 lab.

In discussions about higher education, though, what is needed most is not more contrarians, but consistency of strategy and its implementation.

The biggest proposal from 바카라사이트 Times report was focused on this: removing education policy from 바카라사이트 political cut and thrust by implementing a 15-year strategy, detaching it from 바카라사이트 electoral cycle.

It is a bold, possibly unworkable, plan given 바카라사이트 nature and structure of British politics ¨C but one that has great merit. Universities, schools and colleges are just too important to be used for political point-scoring. That ministers often seem not to appreciate that is, frankly, unfathomable.

john.gill@ws-2000.com