Higher Education : The end of a golden age and the beginnings of a real marketplace
7 th Annual Teachers and careers advisers conference
Steve Igoe
Deputy Vice-Chancellor
16 th April 2014

 Our purpose
 What we are, what we do
 National context
 What we need to do to survive and prosper edgehill.ac.uk

 The University’s core responsibility is for the ‘student experience’
 Within this, the University’s core activities are teaching and learning and research. The vast majority of this
University’s income comes from the former of these activities
 Both undertaken in a competitive environment
 It is the aim of all staff to be part of these academic endeavours and to support each other
 We also play a role (direct and indirect) in the local and regional economy (these include (under-developed) activities) edgehill.ac.uk

 HE in the UK is a world leader, both in quality of teaching and learning and assurance of teaching quality, and in research output

We can be proud of what we do: we have noble aims
 We have no shareholders, we are a collective, surpluses get ploughed back into the University
 The University is its staff and student community
 We are also a business in a highly competitive sector edgehill.ac.uk

edgehill.ac.uk

Source: UUK edgehill.ac.uk

Education spending in real terms, England only: 1997 –98 to 2008–09 edgehill.ac.uk

Will start to rise from here edgehill.ac.uk

edgehill.ac.uk

• To cut public expenditure and the deficit, indeed to eradicate it
• Feel universities are too comfortable, and do not provide value for money to the taxpayer or the student
• There are huge cuts in HEFCE, TA, SHA income which will leave large cuts even after rise in student fees (+ no indexing) edgehill.ac.uk

• Current systems fail to sufficiently recognise different roles for different universities (“our best universities”)
• Some believe that there are too many universities, that we can only prove that there is a real market if a number fail
• Too much research at too low a level
• Quality of teaching needs significant improvement
(weak evidence base) edgehill.ac.uk

Likely implications for the sector
• We live in unprecedented times
• There are significant cuts in HEFCE, SHA, NCTL funding
• There will be a shift to student self-funding
– Student debt has not deterred FTUG students – but has destroyed PG,
PT, mature markets
– Key driver appears to be reputation and attractiveness of the University
• There will be cuts in government research grants
– Increasing emphasis on partnership with private enterprise for funding
– Continued government funding will contract towards STEM only
• Some universities will close
• Greater Government intervention
• Greater Competition edgehill.ac.uk

• DBIS ‘hands-off’ micro-management (!) to assure the quality and reputation of UK HE
– Introduction of the UK Quality Code for HE (mandatory aspects)
– Requirement to make public a wide range of (comparative)
Institutional data
– Retention of external scrutiny mechanisms to ‘check on us’
• Quantitative judgements (Institutional Audit 2016/17)
– ‘Risk-based’ mantra driving QAA’s external scrutiny of
Universities, eg:
• Large overseas or e-learning portfolios might increase the intensity of scrutiny
• Change in Institutional ownership would trigger an external scrutiny event
• Emergence of more national league tables
• Mechanisms for stakeholders to raise concerns to QAA (and for subsequent action) edgehill.ac.uk

• Ideology over evidence
• Schools direct and threats to Secondary ITT
• PGCE vs UG
• Demand 2013/14 : The security of supply
• The end of PPD
• Allocations and Ofsted edgehill.ac.uk

• 2010-13 Commissions
• New structures for social work
• Tensions: Market demand , spending reviews and election politics
• A new purchasing structure
• And from whom
• But what of the “Hard Truths” edgehill.ac.uk

• HEFCE : Funder or Regulator
• HE – A Veblen good
• Student funding : Realities and perceptions
• The future of learner support
• The shifting of responsibility :ALF,DSA ,SOF
• Scholarships and bursaries – Are they worth it ?
• REF and HEIF : A closed shop ?
• The abolition of the SNC and 60,000 more students edgehill.ac.uk

• New Entrants ( for profit and not for profit)
• MOOC’s
• HE in FE
• International and Government immigration policy edgehill.ac.uk

• Tough times ahead, doing more for less, working smarter, working harder
• But we have the following advantages:
– Attractive campus
– Rising popularity
– Good scores in NSS (needs renewing annually)
– Very strong financial position (but limited endowments/realistic assets)
– Increasing staff numbers bring changing (and positive) student-focussed, academic and research culture edgehill.ac.uk

• We must all own the problems and seek their solution
• Demographics and new fee regime means we must further enhance reputation
• We must continue to invest in the campus
• Build our research capacity
• Improve our NSS standing
• Continually revise our provision edgehill.ac.uk

 Of our 22,000 students around 9,500 on FT programmes
 Three Faculties: Arts and Sciences, Education and Health
 Main campus at Ormskirk, others at Chorley
(Woodlands), University Hospital Aintree
 Other satellite sites, outreach centres; e.g. some health in Manchester
 The University has a long and successful history edgehill.ac.uk

• We’ve benefitted from the £9000 fee
– Met student number control
– Increasing numbers of ABB students (650 + in 2013)
– Signs of increasing reputation (+40 places, Times/Sunday Times
(2006 – 2013))
• £120m turnover (and increasing)
– £20m surplus
– Building real estate
– Will build reserves (2014/15)
• League tables:
– 2006: 127 th
– 2013: 69 th
• We will survive; indeed continue to grow securely edgehill.ac.uk

• Turnover
• Has more than doubled in 7 years
• Surplus of around £19m last year
• Investment of over £180m in new campus facilities in last 7 years
• One of the biggest providers of teacher training/education in the UK
• Had a very good QAA Institutional Audit in 2010 and an OFSTED inspection with 33 grade 1 scores
• Good, and improving NSS outcomes
• Amongst the best student employability (93.5%) in the sector
• REF entries more than doubled since 2008
• Attracting staff from entire HE sector, especially at entry, professorial and reader level
• Amongst top 20 places to work in the public sector (Times 2010) edgehill.ac.uk

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