That is the suggestion of former education secretary Charles Clarke, who told a fringe event at the Labour conference that the claim that research improves teaching quality at universities is a ¡°false debate¡±.

The event, hosted by the Association of Business Schools, looked at the question ¡°Is it possible to balance the demands of students with the needs of business?¡±

Mr Clarke notoriously said in his time as education secretary under Tony Blair that ¡°universities exist to enable the British economy and society to deal with the challenges posed by the increasingly rapid process of global change¡±.

At the Labour conference event, he argued that higher education could not go back to a ¡°Stalinist¡± system of central planning. But at the same time, he added, the sector did need to take account of the needs of the economy and the labour market.

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¡°It remains a criticism I would make, despite the National Student Survey, that¡­many, many universities are still not focused enough on teaching as opposed to research, in the way that they determine their priorities,¡± said Mr Clarke, a former president of the National Union of Students.

He said there was a ¡°quite serious issue, particularly with fees as high as they are¡± about where the investment in higher education was going.

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¡°Is all that money really going to teaching quality in a wide variety of different ways? Or is it effectively a means of subsiding research?¡± he said.

Mr Clarke said there was a ¡°false debate¡­where people argue high-quality research is necessary for high-quality teaching.

¡°I do not accept that that relationship is anything like as clear as is [claimed to be] the case.¡±

He called for a ¡°return to teaching as the core of what universities do¡±.

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Mr Clarke said there are ¡°a lot of people in the education world who are pretty contemptuous of the work world ¨C they don¡¯t see it as anything to do with them¡±.

But equally there were people in business who are ¡°contemptuous of the education world¡±, he added.

Mr Clarke also warned that postgraduate funding was a ¡°massive issue¡±, as study that had to be ¡°subsidised by the bank of mum and dad¡± was ¡°socially divisive¡±.

He said he had recommended to the 2010 Browne review that the ¡°student loan system for undergraduates should be extended to MAs¡±.

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john.morgan@tsleducation.com