The universities minister, Jo Johnson, has warned vice-chancellors that bad teaching is damaging the reputation of British higher education, and backed simplified funding to stop “Nobel physicists running car parks” within university bureaucracies.
Johnson’s speech signalled the government’s determination to use its new teaching excellence framework (TEF) to make universities more responsive to students, and upbraided colleges for the “highly variable” quality of undergraduate teaching.
“I hear this when I talk to worried parents, such as the physics teacher whose son dropped out at the start of year two of a humanities programme at a prestigious London university, having barely set eyes on his tutor,” Johnson told senior academics on Wednesday at the Universities UK annual conference in Guildford, Surrey.
“Her other son, by contrast, studying engineering at Bristol, saw the system at its best: he was worked off his feet, with plenty of support and mostly excellent teaching.
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“This patchiness in the student experience within and between institutions cannot continue. There is extraordinary teaching that deserves greater recognition. And there is lamentable teaching that must be driven out of our system. It damages the reputation of UK higher education and I am determined to address it,” Johnson said.
“This is not a contract I want taxpayers to underwrite,” he warned.
Prof Dame Julia Goodfellow, chair of the Universities UK group that represents the sector, told delegates: “We absolutely recognise the importance of excellence in teaching ... However, teaching excellence can only be delivered with stable and sustainable funding.”
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The teaching framework will be outlined in a green paper published later this year, and is likely to link university tuition fee levels to the quality of teaching.
Johnson argued that even the best universities had allowed teaching to become a “poor cousin” to research, because their place on international league tables and funding income relied on scholarly research output.
“It is not at all clear to some students what their tuition fees of £9,000 a year actually pay for, and this has led to calls, which I support, for greater transparency from providers about what they spend fee income on,” Johnson said.
Research funding is also likely to be overhauled after an independent review by management consultants commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which may support merging the current system of subject research councils into a single funding body.
“I do see scope for a simpler system of delivering vital research funding for universities,” Johnson told the vice-chancellors.
After his speech, Johnson highlighted the replication and overlap between the seven existing research councils, saying: “We don’t need Nobel physicists running car parks. We want the scientists focused on science.”
Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said the quality and status of university teaching would be best improved by tackling the low pay and insecurity of academic staff.
“The reality is that over two-fifths of university teaching staff are on temporary or zero-hours contracts. Academic pay has fallen by more than 15% since 2009 and promotions, particularly at a senior level, focus on research,” Hunt said.
Praising higher education as “the most powerful driver of social mobility we have,” Johnson called for serious attention to the performance of disadvantaged white boys, and wants the Ucas admissions service to publish more data on attainment and family backgrounds to address underrepresentation at university.
Johnson also said he wanted more private institutions to challenge existing universities, and would make it easier for new providers to offer degrees.
Describing the current system, where new institutions have to bargain with existing universities to validate degrees, Johnson said: “It’s akin to Byron having to ask permission of McDonald’s to open up a new restaurant.”
The government is to lift its moratorium on allowing new private providers to gain university titles and earn degree awarding powers, although Johnson warned: “We need to be prepared for the fact that some providers may exit the market. Our higher education sector should only have room for high-quality providers.
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