Higher education (but not so high after all)

A Wonke podcast well worth listening to featuring Matt Robb of EY Parthenon on higher education. I think it will all end in tears, but it has the virtue of laying out what is happening and — to use one a phrase I detest — the direction of travel.

Wonkhe podcast here.

Some selective notes below (not necessarily his views): there remains much misery to go around.

• increasing rate of change
• the nature of change
• HE is increasingly commercial and internationalised
• universities having to be more extroverted
• HE sector facing segmentation
• global elite versus high-end Russell and the low-end…..
• (some) protection by grouping by brand
• international students to drive research to drive rankings to attract students…
• your ranking is under threat
• rise of TEF
• the TEF proof of ‘value added’ at bottom of rankings is the only defence against the ‘too many going to university’ argument. (Well, too many are going…)
• the great challenge (for part of this sector) is to explain what teaching looks like if it is not research led teaching (which is not the mass of higher education).
• contract lecturers ……more ‘financial’ flexibility
• online / blended allowing……. more ‘financial’ flexibility
• Segmentation rules!
• University Leadership does not have the strategic competence or backup to run universities.
• a nice analogy between spreadsheets, and strategy versus planning.

Never underestimate the ability of the UK to reflect on, and then destroy its own brands, particularly if consultants are involved.  You can make a lot of money as the ship goes down.