In 2011, David Willetts issued a White Paper with the title "Students at the Heart of the System". In 2011 the headlines were, inevitably, about the new tuition fee regime which, it was hoped, would change the thinking of university leaders so that they focussed less on research excellence and more on the needs and aspirations of…

The accountants Grant Thornton (GT) do a welcome and nice piece of pro bono work by analysing the annual accounts of the UK's 160 (sic) HEIs and compiling a report on "The Financial Health of the Higher Education Sector"--this year entitled "The calm before the storm"! GT duly note that, if the US Department of Education's…

This paper assesses the growing UK private sector in education and questions whether it is, as its supporters suggest, a valuable addition to an already diverse national system. An earlier "Perspectives" paper (Woodfield et al 2011) explored the emerging partnerships between public and private sectors. This follow-up explores the roles…

Since 1998-99, when the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly were established, higher education policies appear to have diverged across the four "home countries" of the UK. This divergence is most visible in the contrasting tuition-fee and student-support arrangements for students entering HE in…

The author has been asked by the Editor-in-Chief to write about the impact of fees on the sector. He does so with concern for the impact on and implications for applicants, students, graduates and their families. Home and European Union undergraduate tuition fees are of course only part of the fee picture for higher education institutions (HEIs),…

Inside the academy there is a cultural perspective that it should run itself, in the sense that "business as usual" should be done with no one's hands obviously on the levers. This theory reaches its high point in the "self-government" of Oxford and Cambridge colleges. In this article, the author explores the question,…

In a conversation between Francis Fukuyama, the Stanford-based political scientist, to publicise his new book "The Origins of Political Order," and Martin Wolf, the distinguished financial journalist, Fukuyama compares political systems in countries like China and Singapore with the liberal West. Without taking the analogy too far the…

During the half century of the AUA's existence UK universities have experienced the fastest rate of growth and most far-reaching changes in their history. Funding arrangements in particular have changed radically. Since 1961 the finance office has been transformed from a small group of bean counters into a key management group at the heart of all…

This paper discusses a way of thinking about disability which has emerged out of the UK Disabled People's Movement over the last three decades in opposition to the preceding medical model of disability which viewed disability as synonymous with problem. Disabled people are increasingly challenging the notion that their embodiment is inherently…

Not for the first time in its history, the UK Higher Education sector finds itself in a position of significant financial constraint. The current coalition Government's actions to address the budget deficit have led to sweeping cuts across many public sector departments, but it is higher education that has seen the most draconian reduction in…

Massification of higher education has not been able to solve societal issues in the UK to the extent originally envisaged. Whilst universities have achieved increased student numbers and widened participation from various societal groups, those coming from socially disadvantaged groups can still often have a very different experience of university…

Perhaps more than any other country in Europe, the UK has well-established equality law and practice, originating with the Race Relations Act of 1965, but based on a longer history of struggle for equality. In 2011 public bodies, including higher education institutions (HEIs), were required to respond to the implementation of the Equality Act…

Legislation to outlaw discrimination has existed for over forty years. The Equality Act (2010) states that it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a candidate for a job because of their age, disability, race, belief, sexual orientation or gender in any part of the recruitment process--in job descriptions, person specifications,…

The two big events in higher education during 2010 were the implementation of the Equality Act, and the introduction of a new dispensation on fees and funding. The former is intended to promote equality, the latter is premised on the need for economy. In this article, the author focuses on the effect of the latter on the former. He considers this…

The author argues that a Higher Education Bill will be lacking in the future, as promised in the 2011 White Paper on HE; and hence the regulatory framework for English HE will, for the immediate future at least, have to evolve within the law as it is rather than via new legal powers. The essential issue is how to extract the benefits of market…