Highlights from December 2017
- DfE Social Mobility and universities
- UCAS End of Cycle report
- Vice Chancellor Pay
- Brexit
- Open Access
Department for Education - Social Mobility and universities
1. The Department for Education has published Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential , a plan for improving social mobility through education. There are four “ambitions” set out in the document, the third of which is “High quality post-16 education choices for all young people” (the others cover early years, schools, and careers). The report discusses both improving technical education, and improving access to high quality higher education. In the case of HE, the report commits the Government to:
- Ensure higher education providers spend their access and participation funding effectively, targeting low participation areas.
- Improve transparency of widening participation practices to encourage applications to the most selective higher education institutions.
2. The DfE has also published a Single Departmental Plan , which lists the same four “ambitions” as their social mobility plan. In the Single Department Plan, they list specific actions they will be undertaking to achieve their aims. For the aim of “ensuring high quality Higher Education” they list:
- Establishing the Office for Students, and improving access to the highest quality courses and institutions.
- Taking forward the tertiary funding review to ensure that higher education offers good value for money for students from all backgrounds.
- Delivering the Teaching Excellence Framework to ensure high quality provision of HE across the sector.
UCAS End of Cycle report
3. On 14 December, UCAS published the final data from their 2017 End of Cycle report. The data show:
- 13.8 % of 18 year olds from the most disadvantaged Multiple Equality Measure (MEM) group entered HE, an increase of 0.2%. This compares with 53.1% of 18 year olds from the most advantaged MEM Group (an increase of 1%).
- Little progress in narrowing the gap between those most and least likely to enter HE since 2006.
- Over 99% of English 18 year applicants who made five choices received at least one offer.
- There was a 40% rise in unconditional offers since 2016, though this represents only 5.3% of all offers.
- A Level applicants generally receive lower grades than predicted (one quarter met or exceeded predicted grades)
Vice-Chancellor pay
4. Vice-Chancellor pay was in the news over December. After the Vice-Chancellor of Bath stepped down in November, a number of other Vice-Chancellor salaries and stories have been highlighted, including that of the VC of Bath Spa who has also resigned with a significant payment for compensation for loss of office.
5. Universities Minister Jo Johnson met representatives from the sector and released a note of his expectations on this issue. These include a fully transparent senior staff remuneration procedure; VCs not being members of the remuneration committee which decides their pay; such committees constituted of members independent of the provider; publication of a clear and accurate pay ratio; and full disclosure of all senior staff benefits.
6. The Committee of University Chairs submitted evidence to the House of Commons Education Committee in December. In this evidence, the CUC identifies potential issues to be addressed, but rejects the idea of a specific pay cap, and note comparisons with both the private sector and VCs in other countries.
7. The CUC is due to publish new guidelines on VC pay in January 2018.
Brexit
8. The agreement on Phase 1 of Brexit talks in December would see the UK contributing its full contribution to the EU budget until the end of December 2020. This would mean UK participation in Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+ until the end of those programmes.
9. On 5 December, Universities UK launched a campaign called “ Brightest Minds ”, highlighting the research and stories of EU27 academic staff working in UK universities. 17% of academic and 6% of professional service staff in UK universities come from the EU27.
10. A number of health charities, HE representative groups and science campaign groups have also called for a post-Brexit visa regime which will continue to allow the recruitment of highly trained technical staff from EU27 countries. This is a particular concern as under existing non-EEA immigration rules, many technicians are in roles which are not classified as skilled enough to be eligible for working visas.
Open Access
11. On 5 December, Universities UK published a report on Monitoring the Transition to Open Access . Key findings from the report include:
- More than half of UK-authored articles are made accessible for public view within 12 months, either through Gold or Green OA
- 37% of UK outputs (vs. 25% globally) are freely available to the world immediately on publication, either through Gold or Green OA
- The proportion of UK-authored articles published open access rose from 12% in 2012 to 30% in 2016
- The global proportion of articles accessible for public view after 12 months via Gold or Green OA rose from 25% to 32% between 2012 and 2016; and the UK proportion rose from 37% to 54%
- The proportion of journals indexed in Scopus that offer immediate OA is rising, with over 60% of journals offering the option in 2016
- OA articles are downloaded from publishers' sites more than non-OA articles
HE Sector Consultations
12. During December, a number of HE related consultations were launched. These included:
- A DfE consultation on two year degree courses (closing date: 11 February)
- A DfE consultation on the monetary and financial penalties which might be levied by the new Office for Students (closing date: 9 February)
- A HEFCE call for evidence on metrics for the new Knowledge Exchange Framework (closing date: 30 January)
13. Several key HE consultations had a deadline in December, including:
- HE Regulatory Framework
- Office For Students Registration Fees
- Designated Quality Body
- Designated Data Body
- Degree Awarding Powers / University Title
- Quality Code
Sector Deal life sciences
15. On 6 December, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy published a Sector Deal for life sciences . This is the first of what will be a sequence of sector deals published as part of the Industrial Strategy , which was published in November. The Sector Deal sees co-investment by businesses, government, universities, charities, and the NHS. Specific actions include:
- Strengthening the environment for clinical trials
- Establishing the Health Advanced Research Programme (up to £210M form the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund)
- Increasing commitments of life science companies to the UK
- Investment to support the growth of medicines manufacturing
- Improving access to new technologies in the NHS
- Improve the UK’s health data infrastructure
- Regional life sciences investments
- Supporting immigration of skilled workers, including: enabling scientists under Tier 1 to apply for settlement after three years, making it quicker for highly-skilled students to apply to work in the UK after their degrees, and reducing red tape in in hiring international researchers.
NAO report – HE market
16. In December, the National Audit Office published a report on the Higher Education Market . The report notes that only 32% of students consider their course offers value for money, and that competition between providers to drive improvements on price and quality have yet to be effective. Its recommendations include
- Ensuring careers advice in schools reaches those that need it most
- Monitoring the HE sector and identifying when it needs to intervene
- Commissioning an independent review of the new regulatory arrangements
- Work with the sector to understand incentives for providers to offer courses in the Government’s priority subject areas, and address deficiencies where necessary
- The OfS learning from other regulators in making the most of its new powers
OfS - Appointments to the Board
17. The Office for Students came into legal force on 1 January 2018. The Department for Education published a list of the final six appointments to the OfS Board. The newly announced Board members are:
- Simon Levine, Managing Partner and Co-Global Chief Executive Officer of the global law firm, DLA Piper
- Toby Young is the co-founder of the West London Free School, and now serves as the director the New Schools Network
- Elizabeth Fagan is Senior Vice President, Managing Director of Boots
- Katja Hall is a partner at Chairman Mentors International
- Monisha Shah is Chair of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance
- Ruth Carlson is a current student at Surrey University
18. Previously announced Board members are Sir Michael Barber (Chair), Martin Coleman (Deputy Chair), Nicola Dandridge (CEO), Chris Millward (DfAP), Gurpreet Dehal, Kate Lander, Prof Carl Lygo, David Palfreyman, and Prof Steve West.
Gavin Costigan
Director of Public Policy | Southampton