The Westminster government¡¯s rebuff on English university funding is not ¡°the end of the conversation¡± because there is an urgent need to consider the cost balance between individuals, the government and ¡°potentially employers¡±, while a review would risk ¡°pushing things off¡±, according to the Universities UK president.

As English university funding declines amid a long-running tuition fee cap freeze while Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish universities also see funding constrained, Dame Sally Mapstone¡¯s speech at the UUK conference in September saw her make a significant intervention, calling for a ¡°potential rebalancing of who pays for the costs of higher education¡±, recognising that its benefits are ¡°neither wholly public nor private¡±.

At the same conference, in her on-stage interview with the higher education minister, Robert Halfon, he repeated his warning, initially made in an interview with ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ, that raising the tuition fee cap during a cost-of-living crisis was ¡°just not going to happen, not in a million years¡±.

What did she make of that message?

It was ¡°very decent of [Mr Halfon] to turn up¡±, a step to ¡°building relationships, having conversations, getting people to explore a different point of view¡±, Dame Sally, the University of St Andrews principal, told THE after taking up her two-year UUK post in August.

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¡°But I don¡¯t see that as the end of the conversation,¡± continued the former University of Oxford pro vice-chancellor for education. ¡°I think it¡¯s the responsibility of universities to acknowledge the situation that we¡¯re in.¡±

Also highlighting a pressing need to address student maintenance funding, Dame Sally said UUK would not ¡°offer up an absolute programme¡± for funding change, because governments current and future would have to evaluate ¡°and decide whether they want to move some of those [funding elements] around as I said, rebalance ¨C or whether they think that they want to attempt something more radical, which in my opinion would just push things down the road for a few more years¡±.

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¡°I never like the term ¡®tweaking¡¯ ¨C partly because I think it sounds like ¡®twerk¡¯ ¨C but tweaking suggests a sort of impermanent adjustment,¡± she added. ¡°And actually, I?think we need something more thoughtful and sustained that¡¯s the product of dialogue and talking things through.¡±

A review is seen by many in the sector as the best route to achieving change.

But Dame Sally said: ¡°The risk with a review is that enables people to push things off for a couple of years while you set up a review group and then give it time to do its work.¡±

On rebalancing, she said: ¡°We need to look at the relationship between what the individual pays, what the government pays and, potentially, what employers contribute ¨C those are the key moving parts.¡±

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In terms of Dame Sally¡¯s background, grammar school in west London was followed by a degree in English at Wadham College, Oxford, then a job in publishing, a doctorate at Oxford and an academic career focused on medieval Scottish literature. Dame Sally described her time at Oxford as ¡°genuinely transformative¡± and ¡°completely disruptive of my established ways of seeing¡±, one factor in why ¡°I¡¯ve always been so keen on widening access¡± to higher education.

But ministers, including the prime minister, argue that there is plenty of ¡°low-value¡± English higher education that is not transformative.

Dame Sally said it was ¡°absolutely crucial when talking about quality not to define everything in terms of poor quality, but to acknowledge and celebrate good quality where you find it; and acknowledge and deal with poor quality if you find it in a small number of places¡±.

The key was to be ¡°encouraging [potential students] to aim high, showing them the range of opportunities universities can offer them, rather than banging on about a small number of courses¡±, she added.

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Dame Sally made curious headlines earlier this year and was branded after The?Sunday Times that a St Andrews international relations academic detected a Russian state hacking attempt when an email reached him, purportedly from a colleague, using a phrase Dame Sally had forbidden on arrival at the university in 2016. She had, it said, told colleagues ¡°they must never start an email with ¡®I?hope this finds you well¡¯, never end one with the sign-off ¡®I?trust you find this useful¡¯, and they should never wear corduroy to work¡±.

Did literal-minded journalists miss her humorous intent? Or does she just really hate corduroy? ¡°I always hope I can get through an interview without the ¡®c¡¯ word being used,¡± deadpanned Dame Sally.

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Nevertheless, she did confirm her ¡°abhorrence¡± of the email phrase ¡°I hope this helps¡± (¡°totally meaningless ¨C what it means is ¡®I know this doesn¡¯t help, but that¡¯s all you¡¯re getting from me at the moment¡¯¡±) and her strong view that ¡°corduroy is for gardening, essentially¡±.

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com