Union warns Willetts off private sector university involvement
by Peter Wozniak
A move to ease restrictions on private sector involvement in universities would damage academic standards, a higher education union has warned.
In a letter to David Willets, the universities minister, the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) cited examples of for-profit involvement in American universities as a warning for the UK, should it choose to loosen current regulations.
Sally Hunt, the UCU general secretary wrote to Mr Willetts: “As you are aware, both the US Congress and the Obama administration are currently discussing how to better regulate the for-profit sector in the wake of a series of high-profile public scandals involving companies like Kaplan and Apollo, which owns BPP University College, alleging malpractice in recruiting and the sale of poor products to lower income students.
“I would ask that no further moves are made by this government, either now or in the wake of the Browne review’s report, to make it easier for the for-profit sector to access public funds or the brand reputation of UK higher education.
“Such moves would, we believe, create conditions very similar to those that have generated the current controversy in the United States.”
The universities minister has previously indicated he favours some expansion of private sector involvement in British higher education, which is currently under stringent regulations determining which institutions can gain university status and thus public funding.
In a speech last week Mr Willetts said: “Internationally, for-profit higher education providers are becoming more significant. They are a natural response to the global hunger for higher education and better qualifications.
“Unencumbered by the weight of history, these providers can grow quickly and change fast. They offer a salutary challenge and new approaches to delivering higher education efficiently – and, in turn, cheaply for students.
“They may have ideas to contribute on student-centred teaching that everyone can learn from.
The Union has condemned any such move as highly destructive of Britain’s academic position internationally. Its report, titled ‘Sub-prime education?’ argued that the US administration is actively attempting to redress the balance of higher education back towards the public sector after a series of scandals, warning that the UK was in danger of following the same path.
The report concluded: “It will be a bitter irony if US owned private providers are able to persuade our government to make the same mistakes here that are only now being rectified in the USA and we warn that the consequences for the reputation of UK higher education as a whole could be disastrous.
“The companies want the restrictions on university status to be relaxed and to be able to tap into public funding to subsidise their profits without having put in place any of the academic safeguards.”
The row over university funding is a symptom of a wider battle between a government desperate to seek private investment of services as the public sector is scaled back to plug the UK’s budget deficit, and unions intent on resisting such changes.
