by Conor Ryan

Much stronger engagement between universities and schools must be a crucial part of the widening participation agenda in the future, universities secretary John Denham told delegates at Warwick today.

Mr Denham had trailed his appearance at Warwick well, with news of a shake-up of Aim Higher to fund 5,500 new student ambassadors at the weekend. Today’s papers heralded a tougher set of powers for the access regulator, OFFA, to monitor what universities are doing on access.

And as Mr Denham reiterated his commitment to 50% participation by young adults – albeit over a longer timescale than the government originally envisaged – he also made clear on the Today programme this morning that he expected much more effort with 13 and 14 year-olds to improve their aspirations of going into higher education than has hitherto been the case.

So Mr Denham’s audience at the HEFCE conference felt they knew what to expect by the time he stood up this lunchtime.

But they got a fascinating speech that went well beyond the trailed announcements. First, Mr Denham made a passionate case for the government’s 50% target linked to what he said was the aspiration of more than half of all families in every social class – including a fast-growing level of aspiration among those with no HE tradition.

And while he repeated the familiar arguments about globalisation, he also pointed out that 45% of young women already enter higher education, compared with perhaps 34% of young men, and much of the target could be achieved by raising the aspirations of young men.

Equally, he pointed out that those for whom WP and access programmes were aimed were not just those from the most disadvantaged youngsters, but the children of the majority of families who were working in jobs like classroom assistants, but had no history of going to university in their own families.
“I worry that too many people think that fair access is about someone else’s children,” he said. “We sell ourselves short if we pretend that this is all it is about.”

Mr Denham said that the ‘consistency of relationships’ between universities and schools, teachers and pupils was what worked best, and he was pleased that 26 institutions were already partnering academies, with 30 in discussions to do so. 59 were linked to trust schools.

The universities secretary said that it was also important that more schools offered students the chance to study three GCSE science subjects, as there was a strong correlation with progress to university among those who did so. With a new entitlement for high achievers in tests at 14, he expected the proportion of schools offering triple science to rise from 27% in 2005 to 50% soon.

Mr Denham was at pains to stress that his proposals for annual reporting of access arrangements should not mean an extra burden on HEIs. But he believed there was a corrosive debate on the subject, and a feeling that “my child is going to lose out no matter how hard they work”. So, the answer was “openness, transparency and accountability” with HEIs publishing their admissions policies, having the means to implement them and assuring themselves they are doing so. “This is not a new burden,” he insisted. “But it will address public confidence.”

This was a carefully argued and measured argument for wider access, one that sought to move the debate from one about poorer families into one that addressed the hopes and aspirations of the mainstream majority. And it was well-received by delegates.

by Donald MacLeod

Youthful charm and energy narrowly won out over statesmanlike experience when the Dragons’ Den came to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) today. [Monday]

As one of five “contestants” trying to sell their ideas for investment to an audience of sceptical vice-chancellors, Gemma Tumelty, president of the National Union of Students got a much friendlier reception than the one she endured at her national conference in Blackpool the week before when her reform plans were narrowly defeated amidst uproar.

It seems that compared to student representatives VCs are pussycats – or at least a lot more polite – and they warmed to her scheme for a pilot project to tap into the student voice.

Was it the price – a mere £60,000 – that clinched it for Ms Tumelty when the audience pressed the voting buttons on their palmheld devices? After all the university audience had just listened to David Eastwood, chief executive of Hefce, outline the prospects for the next few years, a message that could have been summed up as “bad times are just around the corner”.

Or was it her shrewd promise that her scheme would boost their scores in the National Student Survey?

Lord Dearing ran her close though, with an impressively youthful display of energy and passion himself, as he put out a begging bowl for £50m to improve students’ communication skills and turn them into entrepreneurs.

Humanities and traditional subjects could do this just as well as vocational ones, he said, rounding fiercely on Michael Brown, VC of Liverpool John Moores when he suggested this was being done already. His
23% of the vote was just behind Ms Tumelty’s 29%.

Also on 23% was Ann Finlayson, of the Sustainable Development Commission, with her plea for action research to get students involved in the struggle for sustainability. She proposed an “action competence certificate” for every student to recognise the work they would do in the community or schools. A brilliant idea, commented David Green, VC of Worcester, but let’s have a better name.

Sir Martin Harris proposed to have dedicated staff and remunerated students working in schools to raise aspirations and tackle the social divide in education which seems to have got worse over the past 50 years. Schools do have dedicated staff raising aspirations and promoting higher education – they’re called teachers, as Ralph Seymour-Jackson, of the Student Loans Company, remarked acidly.

Perhaps curiously, the proposal for a VC-led inquiry into university boards (aka councils) put forward by Patrick Dunne, communications director of 3i group, didn’t get more backing. As things get tougher you’re going to need good boards to help you run your universities, he told them. Were they just
confident that they have good boards already? Or is that more active governors will be exerting uncomfortable pressure to keep them on their toes? Perish the thought.

The conference is nothing if not politically topical. Outgoing National Union Of Students’ President, Gemma Tumelty won the ‘Dragon’s Den’ session with her proposal for a short pilot on mapping the level and impact of student engagement taking place within institutions. Perhaps it was the low cost, high impact approach she took to selling the project to delegates, perhaps that it actually seemed possible, perhaps that it simply is the idea of the moment.

Whatever it was, it was the clear winner over the other proposals. Second place was shared between the development of institution wide schemes for all students to improve their skills and confidence in sustainable development from Ann Finlayson and Lord Dearing – yes, that Lord Dearing – on high level transferable skills. Another topical suggestion, but he aimed his project away from the traditional field of vocational diplomas and employer engagement and towards the humanities environment. Where earlier societies built their development through castles or through manufacturing, he was certain that in the 21st century, higher education will propel society forward.

Not doing as well was the idea from Sir Martin Harris to create a dedicated stream of funding that will support schools in raising the aspirations of young people at schools. Without tapping into all the talent (another topical phrase, no?) none of the other proposals would be possible, maintained Sir Martin.  And is it too cynical to be completely unsurprised that the request from Patrick Dunne for all institutions to look at their Court and Council structures received the least support?

by Conor Ryan

Student leader Gemma Tumelty emerged triumphant when HEFCE staged its version of the hit TV series Dragons’ Den at its annual conference in Warwick University today.
Ms Tumelty, who as President of the National Union of Students had just presided over her organisation’s national conference in Blackpool last week, won the support of vice-chancellors, HEFCE staff and stakeholders alike for her £60,000 bid to improve the voice of students in higher education.
Her bid attracted a winning 27% of votes, using palmlet technology, narrowly defeating proposals from Lord Dearing for a stronger investment in languages and business skills and from Sustainable Development commissioner Anne Finlayson for more environmental and community  opportunities for students.
Her winning proposal was for a regional pilot – which, if successful, could be rolled out nationally – that would map the engagement of students and provide better training for those involved in university and course committees.
Ms Tumelty pointed out that student voice was now high up the national agenda – the government had appointed a minister for students. Investment in her proposition would bring better results for universities and colleges in the National Student Survey, as well as ensuring better engagement by students and a more valuable contribution from them to university life and learning.
“Students are well place to judge the quality of courses,” she added.  The pilot would develop networks of students who could share and spread best practice. The mapping process would also help to engage part-time, mature and international students, who tended not to get involved at the moment.
The format for the Dragons’ Den session required each participant to make a five-minute pitch followed by a five-minute interrogation from the audience. At the end of the session, each candidate had one minute to make a final bid for audience support.
Ms Tumelty used her final pitch to allay audience concerns that her proposal would only have small or moderate impact. She said it would improve the effectiveness of students in committees and the extent to which students helped in solving problems. “Students can make the higher education sector even more world class,” she promised.
While the process was just for fun, with Ms Tumelty being presented with a bottle of champagne by HEFCE chair Tim Melville-Ross, the NUS President must be hoping her pitch has been logged by those present for any future real bid.

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.

This year’s conference aims to explore how we can realise the full potential of higher education to the benefit of society and the economy – a theme inspired by the title of John Denham’s speech to the Universities UK conference last September.  It is also the first annual conference for HEFCE’s new chair Tim Melville-Ross.

Speeches, presentations, session summaries and selected audio highlights will be available on the HEFCE website as the conference progresses.

Highlights on the first day will include a keynote speech from HEFCE’s Chief Executive Professor David Eastwood, followed by a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style facilitated session, where influential presenters will compete for support from delegates who will vote for and ‘invest’ in their ideas.  It promises to be an interesting session with presentations from Lord Dearing, Patrick Dunne, Ann Finlayson, Sir Martin Harris and Gemma Tumelty.  Watch this space for the results…

Later in the day we’ll be hearing from two universities from the city of Cambridge who will be illustrating two different approaches to employer engagement.

On day two there will be a presentation and discussion of the results of the HEFCE-commissioned study of higher education league tables and their impact on institutions. We shall also be holding workshops to explore ways of unlocking the full potential of various areas of higher education. The day will conclude with an address by John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills.