British and Irish Higher
Education
By Robert Dennis
What is an Economic Development Strategy?
An Economic Development Strategy is…
• The base of all economic development is investment. When
private investment fails to meet a community's particular needs,
public investment or public/private partnerships may be
necessary.
• Exports, productivity, and sustainability are the three principles
of economic development - the pillars that form the core
support of the economic development edifice. With too much
or too little investment in any one of the three, the structure
becomes unstable.
• Source: http://www.mildredwarner.org/econdev/strategies
British Universities:
From Collegiality to National Policy
• Traditionally, British universities governed their institutions by a
collegiality system.
• Collegiality could be seen as a Federal System of indirect control
(only necessary legal and finically dependency) via the state, allowing
local college divisions retain power and autonomy.
• Limiting both powers of the institutions central administration to
promote the power of the state.
• Universities were as a result of this system often self-governing,
legally independent, corporate bodies that controlled institutional
goals and practices in achieving these goals.
Cambridge:
has 31 colleges, of
which three, Murray
Edwards, Newnham
and Lucy Cavendish,
admit women only.
The other colleges
are mixed, though
most were originally
all-male.
Oxford: There
are 38 colleges
and six
permanent private
halls
• Universities in the United Kingdom began to change as early
A Liberal Ideal
of the University
as the 1960s.
• In 1964, the University Grants Committee and Research
Councils were placed under the Department of Education.
• A political and ideological move, aimed at making explicit
higher education policy in the realm of the modern state.
• Ex. The development of polytechnic schools
• Do you think universities should have autonomy or
be under the auspices of the state?
New Public Management
• In the 1980s, Conservative Party, headed by Margaret
Thatcher, transformed university discourse and
systems.
• The objective was to apply private-sector management
techniques.
• The 3E’s: Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Economy
• In what ways is this happening today?
Tension
• Collegiality, seeks consensus
through the committee structure,
and produces slow decision-making
process, and is inherently
suspicious of external efforts to say
the academic process should value
and how it should be
implemented(p. 136).
• Public Management, ideas were to
aligning higher education with
national priorities, accountability
for taxpayer dollars, and developing
specialized responsibilities for
different kinds of colleges and
universities transcended political
boundaries(p.137).
Market Mechanisms and Performance Measures
• Are
performance
measures
needed within
higher
education?
• Market Mechanisms are the process by which a market
solves a problem of allocating resources. Especially,
when deciding how much of a good or service should
be produced and supplied. The market mechanism is an
alternative, for example, to having such decisions made
by the government.
Source: University of Michigan, Deardoff ’s Glossary of International Economics
The Result
• The United Kingdom’s HEIs have moved in the direction of performances
measured accountability and executive style management
• Alternatively only Oxford and Cambridge have steadfast to the collegiality
system, but significant changes have occurred and each institution is more
responsive to external concerns and constituencies.
Cambridge Administrative Capacity
Vice-Chancellor’s
office
Pro-Vice-Chancellor
Planning and Resources
Senior
Administrators
Pro-ViceChancellor
Personnel
Senior
Administrators
Secretary
General
Treasurer
Pro-ViceChancellor
Education
Senior
Administrators
Pro-ViceChancellor
Research
Senior
Administrators
Pro-ViceChancellor
Special
Responsibilities
Senior
Administrators
Cambridge Enterprise
• The identification, protection, and licensing of IP
• Support, advise, mentoring in the creation of new
companies
• Provision of seed funds and links to organizations
providing further funding
• Costing, contact negotiation, invoicing, insurance,
and tax filing support for staff who provide
consultancy services to external organizations
• Links to industry through showcasing and
networking
• Cambridge PhenomenonConcentrated on small,
independent high technology firms
(1960s,1980s)
• Cambridge Phenomenon
Revisited –was based on
telecommunications and
biotechnology development (1990s)
Oxford Governances Structure
• The Higher Education Funding Council of England
(HEFCE) tasked Oxford to meet national guidelines.
• This meant the governing body’s membership must be largely
nonexecutive, external, and free of potential conflicts of
interest.
• As a result, four external members were appointed to the
governing council, a financial management system was
installed, vice president for charities and communities
affairs was created, and a director of international strategy
was developed to increase the global of the university.
• Is this a natural
progression for
a university to
grow and
development
adherent to a
governing
bodies
guidelines?
• Think WASC
and CSUCI.
Culture of Innovation and Regional
Development
• Oxford’s IP and technology integrates a revenuesharing policy aligning's innovators(employees or
students) with well-resourced technology transfer
operations.
• Oxford University Consulting (OUC), finds
direct cost-effective solutions to private
entrepreneurs’ consulting needs.
• Oxfordshire region’s high-tech sector partners
private investors regional enterprises to promote
collaboration and economic development within
the Oxford area.
The Republic of Ireland
• Slightly bigger than West Virginia
• Populaces of 4.3 million
• 7 Universities and 13 Institutions of
Technology
• The Celtic Tiger was a story of
“Brawnpower” changing to “Brainpower”
• By realigning itself from an and agricultural
economy to R&D and high-tech economy,
Ireland went from one of the poorest
European nations to one of the richest.
• Strategic investment in the university
system was key in this economic
development strategy.
Evolving Irish Higher Education
• The elimination of
tuition for
undergraduates in
1995, increased the
commitment to
educational
attainment.
• Enrollment jumped
40% in
undergraduates, 20%
in graduates, and 7.5%
for Ph.D.'s
• As a result HEIs play a greater role in economic development,
and have been pressured to adopt market-influenced behaviors.
• Institutional governances mirrors corporate CEO-type leadership
• The Bologna Process is a series of ministerial meetings and
agreements between European countries designed to ensure
comparability in the standards and quality of higher education
qualifications
• Bologna Process, provides quality assurances, resources, and
compatible and comparable university education across nations
Innovation Island
• Continuing substantial investment in R&D, as demonstrated by the launch of fifth
cycle of the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions
• Restructuring the higher education system to enhance system-wide performance, by
developing a new higher education strategy
• Giving priority to flexible learning initiatives that can be targeted to upskilling
people in workforce, under the Strategic Innovation Fund Investing hundreds of
millions of euros in third-level capital projects
• Using research funding through SFI, Enterprise Ireland, and IDA (Industrial
Development Authority) to instill a culture of commercialization in third-level
institutions to complement the embedded teaching and research culture.
Middle Eastern Higher
Education
Qatar
• Qatar has developed partnerships
with leading universities in the
United States, to transform their oil
based economy to a knowledge
based economy. Ex. Virginia
Commonwealth University,
Carnegie Mellon, Texas A&M,
Georgetown, and Northwestern.
Education City
• “To prepare the people of
Qatar and the region to meet
the challenges of an everchanging world, and to make
Qatar a leader in innovative
education and research.”
~Qatar Foundation Mission
• Pedagogic city, first of its kind in the Middle east
• Copy American style Higher Education
• Branch campus model, composed of highly regarded
university counter parts.
• VCUQ: Arts and Design
• Cornell: Medical degree
• Carnegie Mellon: Business Administration, and Computer
Science, Entrepreneurship Certification Program
• Northwestern University: Journalism and Communication
• Texas A&M: Engineering
Israel
• Israel's higher education was
founded on the basis of cultivating
a Jewish homeland and cultivating
the human capital for a strong
economic foundation.
Evolution of Israel Higher Education
•
1924 Technion-Isreal Institute of Technology in Haifa opened to
train.
•
1925, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU), founded to
attracted Jewish students and scholars from abroad
•
•
•
Classified by three major groups by the CHE:
1.
Universities and institutes with doctoral degree
programs.
1934, Danil Sieff Research Institute (Weizmann Institute of
Sciences), organic chemistry and biochemistry
2.
Academic and regional colleges with undergraduate
degree programs.
1950s, Bar Ilan Unversity and Tel Aviv University
3.
Teacher training colleges---Colleges of education
that grant the B.Ed. degree
1958, the Council for Higher Education (CHE), coordinate
planning and development among
(HEIs) , Planning and Budget Committee (PBC), public funding
from CHE
•
1963, University of Hafia and the Hafia the
Municipality
•
1969, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Colleges in Israel generally focus on teaching
and minimal research takes places at these
intuitions, unlike universities; is such a model
sustainable in the long-term?
Increased Enrollment and Expansion
Year
Numbers
1980
16 institutions
2003
62 institutions
1990
76,00 students
1999
180,000 students
• By 2003, Israel twenty-three teachertraining colleges, five technical colleges,
several regional and specialized colleges,
and ten accredited private colleges
Regional Development Strategy
1.
2.
3.
4.
Human Capital Development
Intellectual capital development
Financial capital development
Social capital development
Have you seen a reoccurring theme in
these core values of community
engagement?