Education! Education! Education! by Stephen Prickett & Patricia Erskine-Hill

Author:Stephen Prickett & Patricia Erskine-Hill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education, positivism, education policy, tests, curricula, curriculum, 3 Rs, accountability, mismanagement of universities, Laura Spence affair, higher education, polyphony, social utility, neo-Luddism, primary schools, bureaucracy
ISBN: 9781845404734
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2013
Published: 2013-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

The Times Higher Education Supplement published a contribution from an American university president, on a study visit to form a view of the pluses and minuses of industry-university links in Britain.

As a university president who works extremely hard to strengthen and expand corporate ties with his institution, I wondered how other educational systems in highly industrialized countries interacted with business and industry .... In eight weeks I have become somewhat conversant with UK universities and their considerable array of talent. I am impressed, to say the least. In eight weeks I have also gained a better understanding of UK business and management styles and observed some of the philosophies at work in British industry and commerce. In this regard, I am somewhat less impressed and even a little dismayed.

My interviews with academics, business executives and industry consultants revealed some recurring criticisms of British business attitudes:

- too much concern with immediate profit and little vision for the future;

- little priority for research and development budgets within the corporate structure;

- lack of an appreciation for an academic degree by senior executives who themselves are not university graduates;

- the absence of continuing education for staff within the UK corporate community;

- the significant lack of personal involvement by business executives in the education system which is providing their future employees.

Then, with the clarity of the outsider, the President of Alfred University, Alfred, New York, made some concluding observations and asked a most pertinent question:

The Green Paper affords a golden opportunity for British education to step boldly forward and show its capabilities. But the policy makers must remember that it always takes two to tango. What happens, as an example, if the UK campus structure is moulded to accommodate the nation’s industrial needs in an era where its industrial leaders focus heavily on today’s profits while ignoring tomorrow’s opportunities? It would be the ultimate irony if the Green Paper created a vast reservoir of teaching and research talent that serviced primarily the commercial needs of the UK’s international competitors who were smarter and quicker to take advantage of such a national treasure. At best, it would create a new dimension for the term ‘brain drain’.

The Green Paper is ... a good concept, but ignores the second half of the equation: UK business and industry .... Who now devises the Green Paper for the profit sector? [42]

Not only was there not to be a Green Paper for ‘the profit sector’, but rather it was the ‘business and management styles ... and some of the philosophies at work in British business and industry and commerce’ which were to be imposed on the ‘impressive’ UK universities. This self-spaying of the universities was effected by means of a report from the Jarratt Committee, established (after ‘proposals’ by the Department of Education and Science) by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals in March 1984, with the remit to carry out ‘efficiency studies’ comparable to those earlier conducted into Civil Service departments by Sir Derek Rayner. One hundred and fifty years

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