Focus on local research and skills, says Tory manifesto author

Rachel Wolf says academia’s career incentives should shift away from ‘obscure parts of the globe’ in vision for universities to help level up

十月 4, 2021

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The role of English universities in the Westminster government’s levelling-up agenda should encompass “reorienting” their skills training and research towards local economies, by?shifting academic career incentives away from “obscure parts of the globe”, plus innovation that leads to higher wages, according to a co-author of the last Conservative manifesto.

Rachel Wolf made the comments at a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on 4?October, where Sheffield Hallam University vice-chancellor Sir Chris Husbands also accepted that there was a “legitimate case” for introducing minimum entry requirements at universities, while stressing the importance of mass higher education to advanced economies.

Facing a difficult comprehensive spending review and frequent criticism from ministers on economic and cultural grounds, some in policymaking and in universities see emphasising their civic roles in local and regional economies as a way to assert a more positive?role.

Ms Wolf, a founding partner of the influential political consultancy Public?First, who co-wrote the 2019 Tory manifesto, said: “My question is?now…[is]?what is the role of universities in levelling-up, if you see the concept of levelling-up as about restoring civic pride and allowing people to feel there is opportunity in the place they live.”

On the first element, local skills and training, in focus groups run by Public?First, “mid-level skills” and technical training are “very important to the people we talk to in places that need levelling-up”, she told the event, hosted by the Education Policy Institute and Sheffield Hallam.

She continued: “My challenge to universities is to really be first movers in showing how this can be delivered…Universities can be a vanguard in this, not only in [offering] sub-degree [qualifications] but in returning to things like evening training for workers and lifelong learning. But we haven’t seen…a?lot of first movement?yet.”

The second element of universities’ role in levelling-up “links to devolution”, said Ms Wolf.

“I have become convinced that, long term, you cannot do levelling-up seriously without local power and local decision-making. I?think it’s?impossible.”

She continued: “It seems to be [that academics] often feel they will have a greater career route by publishing research on obscure parts of the globe and how to improve their productivity, rather than actually working deeply with the local leadership and local area about how to improve the economics of their place. That would be a signal that we were reorienting not only skills training but R&D towards what is most likely to make the biggest long-term difference to these areas.”

The third element, said Ms Wolf, was on jobs. In Public?First focus groups, members of the public asked about their levelling-up priorities first talk about the condition of their high streets, then after that “fundamentally it is about opportunities and it is about jobs, it?is about security for families”, she said. “That means we need to be moving towards higher wage, higher stability equilibria in these places.

“We have an opportunity to do that because there are a limited number of technologies and areas where the government is going to spend a lot of money – net?zero being the most obvious example.”

But, Ms Wolf, added: “I?still see quite a big gap, though, between the nature of that government policy as it emerges and the extent to which universities are articulating and being funded to develop really tangible technological innovations.” She cited the example of the UK having leading climate scientists but with few of them, as she saw it, working on technological solutions to mitigate climate change.

“Universities are intrinsic to places,” said Ms Wolf, and more could be done in government and in universities “to demonstrate how living somewhere doesn’t need to be a limit on opportunity and future”.

With the government expected to unveil at the spending review a plan for a minimum entry requirement to qualify for student loans, using GCSE grades, Sir Chris said “there is a case, a legitimate case, for minimum entry thresholds”, “which would in turn help to generate a more balanced school system”.

“But we all need to realise we live in a world of increasingly massified higher education,” he added. Higher education participation rates ranged from 40?per cent in the UK, to 47?per cent in China, 54?per cent in the US and 75?per cent in South Korea, he said.

“The importance of massified higher education in advanced economies should not be understated,” continued Sir Chris.

There are “some difficult choices coming – choices about funding, choices about participation, choices about who goes” to university, he also said. “It’s a good precept for politicians: get ahead of the issues.”

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com

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Reader's comments (2)

#1 Submitted by esmartinone_gmail_com on 十月 5, 2021 - 5:01pm

I see some alignment here with the concept of a Civic University- and as one my recent blog illuminates its a vehicle which the Dutch government is pushing with funding incentives. Maybe our Minister for 成人VR视频 should pursue a similar policy? CIVIC UNIVERSITIES and CIVIC RENEWAL Civic Universities in the Netherlands There is a growing interest in the idea of civic universities. It’s an idea which has a new resonance with many who believe its time for a reassessment of what a university is for(see my earlier blogs on From Green Academy to Ecological Universities and What is a University For?). I was particularly struck by what is currently happening in the Netherlands to make the connections between a university and its place. They argue that civic universities matter more than ever as “anchor institutions”. Whilst this is a poorly defined and loose term, universities are– alongside the NHS and local authorities –one of the key institutions in many places. They create wealth in a variety of ways, including through their direct spending on wages and local goods and services, and through their effects in the local economy. They play a critical role in an ageing and automated society in facilitating lifelong learning and will be crucial in helping to deal with both challenges especially in a post Corvid world. They also are increasingly involved in activity that makes life meaningful and pleasurable for local people: including education more broadly, and arts and culture. In the case of the Netherlands the national policy agenda for 成人VR视频 and Research identifies knowledge valorisation – the creation of economic and social value from knowledge and social benefit – as a key priority. The ambition is that by 2025, research universities and universities of applied sciences will form part of localised sustainable “ecosystems” alongside the secondary education sector, secondary vocational education, research institutes, government departments, local and regional authorities, companies, hospitals, community centres and sports clubs. Is this the dawn of the “Ecological University”, I wonder? The overall performance of universities’ contribution to this agenda is monitored through a process of Performance Agreements) – now called Quality Agreements . Funding can be withheld if the plans do not meet the criteria. The separate ministries with responsibility for higher education and for city development have recently announced joint funding for “city deals” specifically to support collaboration between universities and municipalities. Most Dutch universities and their municipalities are participating in the programme. I hope our new Minister of 成人VR视频 is following the Dutch example? The rationale for such an approach is clear. It is important for a city’s capacity for innovation that it has a strong relationship with knowledge institutes and that researchers, lecturers and students are involved in solving social problems. Not only to strengthen the problem-solving ability of the city, but also because it contributes to the training of the students of the future– who will contribute to shaping society – and gives them a better understanding of social issues. Using the society as a rich learning environment for students is therefore an important theme. The idea is that students formulate the relevant research questions together with researchers and the field (businesses, government, social institutions, citizens’ initiatives), carry out further research into urban problems and evaluate whether assumed problem-solving approaches are effective. This idea is not a new one. A similar approach initiated in an agricultural college(Hawkesbury) in New South Wales directly tackled the inadequacies of the philosophies, theories and practices of reductionist science and technology. The Hawkesbury initiative shifted their educational approach from abstract and conceptual perspectives to ways of dealing directly with reality. The central thesis of the Hawkesbury approach is that, if there are to be new ways of farming developed which are more socially and environmentally responsible, then these will be predicated by the development of ‘new ways’ of thinking, knowing and learning. Professor Stephen Martin Hon Professor in Sustainability Learning University of Nottingham

#2 Submitted by Fringe Academic on 十月 7, 2021 - 10:55am

“It seems to be [that academics] often feel they will have a greater career route by publishing research on obscure parts of the globe and how to improve their productivity, rather than actually working deeply with the local leadership and local area about how to improve the economics of their place. That would be a signal that we were reorienting not only skills training but R&D towards what is most likely to make the biggest long-term difference to these areas.” This is a worrying statement, not just because it reveals the populist nationalism reminiscent of Trump's "make America great again" but because it ignores that in today's world the global and the local are more interconnected than ever (supply chains anyone?). No one disagrees that there needs to be a better connection between universities (especially elite universities) and local communities, but this statement is both short-termed and short-sighted.