UK Government changes
Following Angela Rayner’s resignation as Deputy PM (and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party), a Cabinet reshuffle saw significant changes – including the replacement of Peter Kyle as Science Secretary by Liz Kendall. At the level below, the HE sector’s two ministers remained in post but with expanded roles – Patrick Vallance is still Science Minister but gained a new role under Ed Miliband at the Department of Energy, while Minister for Skills Jacqui Smith now reports both to Bridget Phillipson at the Department for Education and Pat McFadden at DWP, suggesting a closer working relationship between the two departments on skills.
There were further changes behind the scenes, with the PM reshaping his Downing Street team and welcoming two social scientists to the heart of government. Minouche Shafik, a former Vice-Chancellor at the LSE, has been appointed as the PM’s Chief Economic Adviser, whilst another LSE economist, John Van Reenen, will advise Rachel Reeves on economic growth, focusing on the government’s mission to kickstart growth and raise living standards.
Other news in brief
- REF pause – further developments: Following the 12-week pause in the next REF exercise, there are increasing signs that one potential way out of the growing complexity of the system could be to offer a two-tier REF system with a less burdensome REF regime for less research-intensive institutions and/or smaller specialist institutions.
- Further QR hints: Universities UK’s new president, Malcolm Press, indicated in an interview with Research Professional (£) that the UK Government is likely to shift public funding away from ‘low-quality, low-volume research’, and towards ‘a hub and spoke model’ which reduces what he termed “hobbyist research that’s unfunded going on in institutions”. This is likely to be further indication that reforms to the UK’s QR system are on the horizon, and came at the same time as the Russell Group warned about the state of UK research funding, with figures showing that QR funding has dropped by almost 17% in the last 15 years. It is expected that DSIT will soon publish a vision for the UK’s R&D landscape alongside a much-delayed white paper on post-16 education by the Department for Education in England.
- Regional impact of social science research: The Academy of Social Sciences’ latest report on social science research in the Midlands was picked up by Research Professional (£) amongst others. The report presented a collection of case study examples in which deeply applied and solutions-focused social science research is using innovative, collaborative and multi-disciplinary ways to bring substantial regional benefits at scale.
- Calls for “a social science Aria”: In an article on his blog which attracted some media attention, former Blair adviser Geoff Mulgan FAcSS called for a body to back radical research to accelerate social policy breakthroughs, noting a “remarkable” imbalance in funding compared with STEM.
- International students ‘propping up UK system’: The latest OECD report on education highlighted that the UK remains one of the most attractive study destinations for students, but also spotlighted continued concerns about an over-reliance on international students.
- BA report on arts, humanities and social science ‘cold spots’: A new report from the British Academy has warned of the disappearance of arts, humanities and social science degree courses in some parts of the UK. Whilst most of the threats are to the arts and humanities, the report notes that anthropology is increasingly concentrated in major cities and particularly London and the South East of England. The report calls, inter alia, for universities in the UK’s nations and regions to build regional partnerships to safeguard provision.
- International student levy warning: In response to the inquiry by Westminster’s Education Committee on international students and the threat of insolvency in the higher education sector, Universities UK warned that an additional 14 English universities could be pushed into deficit by a levy on international students. The levy was proposed in a Home Office immigration white paper earlier this year, with skills minister Jacqui Smith later saying the Department for Education in England was committed to “exploring the idea”. The Academy of Social Sciences also made representations to the same committee inquiry, arguing that not only should the proposed international fee levy be reconsidered, but the UK Government should disaggregate party political issues of international migration from the business of university education altogether.