Memorandum submitted by the London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
THE ROLE
OF UNIVERSITIES
OVER THE
5-10 YEARS
UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) make
a substantial contribution to the UK economy and to the needs
of industry, through their research, teaching and other work.
But knowledge transfer must not be considered narrowly in terms
of products or services rolled out to industrial partners. The
Committee will need to look at the range of HEIs' activities to
assess their full contribution to the economy and society. Beyond
their work with industry, HEIs provide huge social—and long-term
economic—benefits through links that enhance policy and
practice: their role in informing NHS policy in the UK and internationally
WHO and Public Private Partnerships such as the Global Fund to
fight AIDS TB and Malaria , for example, are extremely important
in the health sector.
HEFCE's current strategic plan commits it to
increasing global engagement between the UK's HE knowledge base
and overseas HE and users. The School strongly supports this commitment,
and believes that HEIs are uniquely qualified to make a significant
contribution to meeting the needs of the developing world. Incentives
should be put in place to encourage the fulfilment of these social
obligations, and to support HEIs participation in the international
development agenda and their contribution to capacity building
in the South.
UNIVERSITY FUNDING
The research base provided by HEIs is vital
to the competitiveness of the UK economy, and to the wider social
benefits noted above. Government funding should continue to be
allocated in a way that is selective, and supports excellence.
Funding should not be diverted away from leading research universities
when more is needed to support international competitiveness,
in both basic and applied research.
The School welcomes recent changes to HEFCE's
funding formula to give greater recognition to research supported
by charities. However further action is needed to implement FEC
fully for charity-funded research. This work is highly relevant
to policy and practice, and therefore to HEIs' contribution to
the UK's economy and society. But institutions do not have the
capacity to subsidise grants. If charities are not encouraged
to invest in the UK there is a risk that major UK and international
sponsors will divert research funds to countries with a more favourable
funding environment. This would have serious implications for
the UK's research base, particularly in the biomedical sciences
The UK needs to be more entrepreneurial in attracting
overseas students, who provide huge benefits to the UK economy.
There have been a number of Government initiatives over recent
years to support overseas recruitment, but these have not always
been co-ordinated with other aspects of Government policy. Potential
overseas students should not be hindered from coming to the UK
by, for example, changes in Government policy on visa fees.
Government funding needs to be more equitable
for all student groups than at present in order to encourage a
more diverse and flexible market.. In recent years much attention
has been given to widening participation at undergraduate level,
and this is clearly important for the sector. But in future years
it will become increasingly important to support the part-time
and postgraduate markets, particularly if the numbers of school
leavers entering HE will reduce. Part-time and postgraduate provision
will also be essential to support the development of advanced
skills in the workforce.
THE STRUCTURE
OF THE
HE SECTOR
The UK must aspire to be the leading HE provider
in Europe and in order to achieve this must be sufficiently flexible
in order to be the favoured destination of both UK and EU students.
The diversity of the sector should be supported
and encouraged beyond the traditional research/teaching strengths
to support and enhance subject specialisms in order to sustain/produce
world-class centres.
Public health and prevention subject areas need
to be provided with greater support as, despite their importance,
they are usually overlooked compared with biomedicine.
December 2006
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