Select Committee on Education and Skills Written Evidence


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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