by Conor Ryan
Physics had seemed to be losing its popularity among students – not just at university, but also in school – over the last few decades.
But take-up at A level has started to stabilise and physics applications to HE rose last year, not least as a result of stronger outreach by HE into schools and clearer expectations from employers.
Yet there have also been concerns about the viability of some university departments. So, there will have been a big welcome among South East universities for a new £27.8 million fund – including £12.5 million from HEFCE’s strategic development fund - to promote and sustain physics provision in six South East universities working collaboratively through a new organisation known as the South East Physics Network - SEPNET.
The announcement was part of Professor David Eastwood’s opening address to some 200 delegates at Hefce’s annual conference at Warwick University today.
The universities involved – the University of Kent, Queen Mary University of London, Royal Holloway University of London, Southampton University, University of Surrey and the University of Sussex – will have four main research themes: condensed matter physics, particle physics, astrophysics, and radiation and detector instrumentation.
Prof Eastwood placed the announcement within a £75 million programme designed to protect high cost lab-based vulnerable STEM subjects, including the sciences. Other projects included Stimulating Physics, led by the Institute of Physics, as well as similar programmes in Chemistry, Engineering and Maths. HEFCE would publish an annual statement on STEM supply and demand in the future.
In his speech, Prof Eastwood said that HEFCE was playing a crucial role in developing a 10-15 year framework for higher education.
He updated the conference on the new Research Excellence Framework, designed to replace the Research Assessment Exercise after this year’s RAE. Prof Eastwood highlighted the differing views of respondents to the consultation on issues like bibliometrics, and noted concerns about the timetable and the potential inflexibility of the proposed twin-track approach with two discrete subject block. Prof Eastwood urged delegates to resist attempts to create a system of ‘baroque complexity’.
He said that higher education had done reasonably well in funding terms at a time of tightening fiscal pressures. HEFCE was also ensuring that 94% of funding was going in block grant to universities and colleges, though this would mean some ‘tough decisions’.
Why the future of fees depends on the future of HE
Universities and colleges were urged to engage with a wide-ranging review of the purposes of higher education that has been prompted by universities secretary John Denham.
“The opportunities here are very considerable,” said Prof Eastwood in his opening address to the HEFCE conference.
He reminded delegates that the government had only committed itself to a ‘social science’ review of the impact of fees to date, and the sector itself needed to make the case for change in the context of the wider review of HE’s future.
“This does not mean that the issue of the fees cap will be resolved in 2009,” he said. “The Secretary of State wants the debate on fees to follow a wide-ranging debate on the purposes of higher education”.
The wide-ranging review was being used to revise and refresh HEFCE’s own strategic plan, and would enable the sector to engage with the Council’s strategic thinking in richer and more diverse ways than before.
There would be a range of consultation opportunities to allow such input, ahead of a formal consultation in the autumn. Among the issues to be debated would be the priorities for funding teaching – should it be around stability or dynamism? Should we expect one teaching funding to deliver it all, or are there ways to reflect the diversity better?
How much should students shape higher education in the future, and is there enough space for student voice? These and other issues including workforce development, the impact of globalisation and the role of regulation would all be for debate. The new strategy would operate from 2009-2014.
Leave a Reply