33. Memorandum submitted by Staffordshire
University
Thank you for your invitation to provide our
views on the White Paper, which we are pleased to accept. Our
comments and observations relate principally to the implications
for Staffordshire University alone and not for the sector as a
whole.
We broadly welcome the vision set out in the
White Paper and the recognition of the significant funding challenges
facing the higher education sector. The commitments to fair and
widened access, coherent and valued vocational pathways, enhanced
status of teaching, support for flexible modes of study and to
knowledge transfer activity are all supportive of our own particular
mission.
We question the broad generalisation that the
connection between an institution's research and teaching activities
is indirect. To be at the forefront of teaching excellence or
knowledge transfer innovation, we strongly believe that we need
practitioners who are at that the cutting edge of their field.
This leadership and dynamism can only be achieved through applied
scholarship and research. We will therefore be continuing our
research activity and hope recognition for this does not get lost
in the continuing overemphasis on research selectivity and associated
large financial rewards.
We welcome the key proposals in Chapter 3 (Higher
Education and business) and look forward to a permanent third
stream of funding. Whilst the focus on technology transfer underpins
much of our activity, it remains unclear how our commitment and
contributions to social, cultural and community development will
be supported.
The focus upon teaching and learning as "central
to the purpose of higher education" is welcomed. However,
in view of our earlier comments on research, we hope that it will
not lead to an unhelpful stratification of the HE system either
by default or design. Funding allocations have shown that there
is still not a sufficiently radical rebalancing of funding to
give teaching excellence equal parity with research excellence.
It is recognised that the promotion of best practice through a
national Academy for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching,
the development of Centres of Excellence, the National Teaching
Fellowship scheme and pay reward systems for teaching excellence
is an attempt to address this issue. Whilst we are well placed
to engage in these initiatives, we firmly believe that their envisaged
impact on parity of esteem should be monitored closely and evaluated.
We support the Government's continuing commitment
to fair and widened access and can contribute significantly to
the development of Foundation Degrees through our nationally recognised
FE Consortium—SURF (Staffordshire University Regional Federation).
Flexibility of delivery is also one of our key strategic objectives
and we look forward to the detail on how this might be supported.
The proposal to establish a new national body to act as a focus
for the co-ordination of Foundation Degree developments is of
particular interest to us and one where we could offer particular
expertise.
Reservations about increased tuition fees remain
and we will need to be convinced not only that non-traditional
students are not disadvantaged but also that the sector gains
additional new monies through any new funding arrangements.
Finally, we note the proposed introduction of
an Access Regulator, question its value and ask for reassurance
that the bureaucracy and costs involved in this and the many other
ring fenced initiatives outlined in the White Paper will be kept
to an absolute minimum. They should not become an unproductive
drain on already meagre resources.
We look forward to receiving the results of
this consultation exercise.
March 2003
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