APPENDIX 20
Memorandum from Nottingham Trent University
INTRODUCTION
Nottingham Trent University Provision
Nottingham Trent University is a large University
with a breadth of teaching provision in Science, rare within UK
Universities.
— Programmes are provided in the more
traditional core sciences of Biology, Chemistry and Physics and
also within the modern interdisciplinary subjects of Sports Science,
Forensic Science, Environmental Sciences and Biomedical Sciences.
— Uniqueness exists in the variety
of levels of qualifications and modes of study (full-time, sandwich
and part-time) which offer a multiplicity of entry and exit points
for both traditional and non-traditional applicants, all the way
from Foundation Degrees to PhDs.
— Many programmes have professional
placement routes.
— Level one entry to Science programmes
in 2004-05 is around 500 FTEs and total enrolments over all years
and levels of taught provision are around 1,500.
Our comprehensive teaching provision offers
an ideal "one-stop shop" for candidates and schools
searching for science in Higher Education.
The Science provision at NTU is highly rated
for both teaching and for research.
— Teaching was awarded the top grade
in HEFCE/QAA subject reviews for all traditional subject areas:
Chemistry, Physics and Molecular/Organismal Biosciences, plus
an excellent grade for Sports Science (22/24 points).
— The university has just been awarded
maximum funding under the HEFCE Centre for Excellence in Teaching
and Learning to develop the Centre for Effective Learning in Science.
— Research in RAE 2001 was awarded
a grade 5 in "Other Professions and Subjects Allied to Medicine"
and a grade 3A in "Chemistry"; a submission which included
physicists.
A key feature of our provision in both research
and teaching is its interdisciplinary nature.
SUBMISSION EVIDENCE
"The impact of HEFCE's research funding formulae,
as applied to Research Assessment Exercise ratings, on the financial
viability of university science departments"
The extreme selectivity and lack of knowledge
of changes to funding weightings before RAE 2001 has resulted
in a total loss of HEFCE second stream income to the Physical
Sciences part of our science base. The loss of HEFCE RAE income
is despite a significant growth in our third stream activity over
both the 1996-2001 and post-2001 periods.
Based on a grade 5 post-RAE 2001 income of around
£70k per member of staff entered in RAE 2001 and an undergraduate
income of around £5.5k per student, the grade 5 award in
our Biosciences equates to approximately an effective reduction
in student-to-academic staff ratio (SSR) of 13 per member of staff
submitted to RAE2001.
It is clear that the differential in total HEFCE
research and teaching income between a department submitting 100%
of its academic staff and receiving an RAE grade 5, compared to
a department receiving only HEFCE teaching income, when measured
in terms of SSR is extreme.
It is our belief that our grade 3A, which was
one of very few two-grade increases, compared to RAE 1996, awarded
within chemistry, was equivalent to grade 4 in many other units.
However, this grade 3A has no associated income and the differential
in income to our grade 5 is therefore very significant. Juxtaposing
the greater difficulty in recruiting undergraduates to the Physical
Sciences, an equivalent to 13 SSR is an extreme multiplier for
RAE.
"The desirability of increasing the concentration
of research in a small number of university departments, and the
consequences of such a trend."
NTU strategy is to provide a full complement
of science provision, although the size of such a base in each
sub-area reflects relative strengths in student recruitment.
Our past experience is that a core of traditional
science expertise is important in retaining flexibility and being
able to respond when a new subject area develops. Thus, our new
science degrees are fully underpinned with experience and facilities
from the Physical and Biological Sciences. Examples include Sports
Science and Forensic Science rather than less rigorous Sport Studies
or Crime Scene Study. This approach retains scientific competency
within graduates and reduces the loss of scientific competency
from the overall graduate output. Focusing research in a small
number of departments may lead to a downward spiral in which new
subjects are offered in non-research departments offering predominantly
"science studies" rather than "science".
Further concentration of research is likely
to reduce the ability of departments such as ours to recruit high
quality staff across the full range of disciplines to support
existing teaching and retain future flexibility.
NTU research strategy supports cross-discipline
approaches and this has underpinned our use of SRIF funding to
construct interdisciplinary research spanning the Biological and
Physical Sciences. An over-focussing of research on a smaller
number of departments nationally is likely to reinforce a single-subject
mentality within the UK.
"The implications for university science
teaching of changes in the weightings given to science subjects
in the teaching funding formula."
Recent proposals by HEFCE to increase the relative
weight given to science were overturned and eventually the formula
resulted in a cut in funding per student. This appeared to indicate
confusion in policy similar to RAE2001 when it initially appeared
that HEFCE would retain funding of grade 3A departments. The overall
effect is to signal a lack of commitment to science.
"The optimal balance between teaching and
research provision in universities, giving particular consideration
to the desirability and financial viability of teaching-only science
departments".
It appears unlikely that teaching-only science
departments will be either desirable or financially viable, but
we would not wish to use RAE outcomes, which have been reportedly
subject to "games-playing", solely as a measure of,
or to determine, research activity or provision. NTU practice
in this area is that undergraduate teaching is underpinned by
staff who undertake research.
At present NTU science works on a student-to-academic
staff ratio of around 20:1 and, whilst RAE 2001 income to physical
sciences does not exist, there is a significant level of research
funding from other sources, such as research councils and the
EU. Forthcoming changes to research council funded projects, which
are moving towards full economic costing, should reinforce our
ability to maintain a small core of highest quality research within
the Physical Sciences irrespective of RAE funding.
An overall consequence of current HEFCE policy
is that major provision in physical sciences now exists in less
than 50% of universities. The loss of science and engineering
from the majority of universities is likely to result in a lack
of scientists and engineers within senior management teams and
certain universities could become scientifically illiterate.
"The importance of maintaining a regional
capacity in university science teaching and research."
If financial pressures, due to higher undergraduate
fees, result in less student mobility from their home, then regional
provision becomes increasingly important. Full provision of science
within a geographical region is unlikely be delivered unless that
provision includes all levels from foundation degree to postgraduate
and all modes from full-time to part-time. Also increasing prevalence
of local students should encourage more cooperation and collaboration
between HE institutions to ensure optimal regional capacity.
"The extent to which the Government should
intervene to ensure continuing provision of subjects of strategic
national or regional importance; and the mechanisms it should
use for this purpose"
Universities are autonomous institutions but
the Government is able to exert strong national influences collectively
via HEFCE on the funding available to support such subjects, as
well as at more local level through the Regional Development Agencies.
Government should not intervene directly in the affairs of institutions
such as the viability of individual departments but it should
ensure that the funding councils have mechanisms to support key
subjects at regional and local level, particularly by encouraging
breadth of provision and interdisciplinarity in the sciences.
A threat to the provision of physical science
within interdisciplinary structures is the tendency for universities
with long established high RAE grades in core physical sciences
to recruit large undergraduate student numbers in these areas.
These high RAE grades coupled with high undergraduate intakes
reinforce the trend to single-subject departments. Marginally
reducing undergraduate intakes in such departments.
January 2005
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