Bill please - Higher Education waits
The Chief Executive of Independent HE writes as the Higher Education and Research Bill reaches Report stage in the House of Lords this afternoon.
We have been here before. The history of British higher education follows a path of gradual progress punctuated by a few moments when a new course was set for the decades to come. At every such moment the higher education community found itself at a crossroads. Each time some voices urged it to retreat from change and choose the more familiar path. Each time the fear in those voices proved to be misplaced.
It took courage in 1836 for the government to establish the University of London, against fierce protests from Oxford and Cambridge, to grant degrees to affiliated colleges and medical schools. The first university to award degrees without any religious test, the first to open degrees to women, it was a pioneer of widening participation in higher education.
It took courage in the early 1960s to establish the plate-glass universities and kickstart the age of mass higher education. It took courage again to elevate the polytechnics to university status in 1992 and place vocational learning at the heart of our higher education system.
Each of these decision arose in direct response to the unmet needs of students and the unavailable skills required by the national economy at a time of great change.
We are living in such a time, and it will take courage to make the decisions needed for our nation to meet the challenges ahead. Parliament must now recognise its essential role in helping us to face this future, not languish in the past.
The Higher Education and Research Bill is a bold piece of legislation. It has to be to make a mark in such mercurial times. But while it responds to recent transformations in kind, it did not cause them and it cannot reverse them. That would be a heavy burden to place on any single law.
New providers are not barbarians at the gates of our higher education sector. In the 25 years since the last major piece of legislation the landscape of higher education has changed dramatically. A wave of new universities has shifted memories of the leafy campus towards centres of urban learning. Small and specialist institutions have emerged in response to specific student needs, and this has expanded the number of colleges, institutes and schools offering degrees in partnership with universities. Regulation must reflect the change which has already happened – it cannot roll back the tide.
Regulation requires a powerful, independent regulator, advised by experts in the field. The Office for Students is thus – designed for today’s sector and ready for tomorrow’s challenges. It must have the power to appoint a validator where students and institutions are at risk from failed validation arrangements. Where validation is not the most appropriate option and institutions can show the systems and expertise to grant degrees, OfS must have the tools to provide and regulate probationary Degree Awarding Powers. Each process needs the other.
The major amendments to the Bill tabled last month by the government have reassured the higher education community that the OfS will be empowered to make the right decisions for the students of today. The importance of expert advice in the DAPs process has been recognised and the role of an independent quality body enshrined in legislation. These are the safeguards the sector was looking for, and the reason why Universities UK and GuildHE have now joined Independent Higher Education in offering their full and unqualified support for the amended Bill. This is the Bill the higher education sector needs, and it needs it now. It is time for Parliament to show courage and choose the path to the future.
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