Only certainty is change for funding universities

Published on Tuesday 13 October 2009 22:05

ANTHONY Cohen is man fascinated by questions. Philosophy, the study of the why of human existence, was his first academic interest.

That was quickly supplanted by interest in the quirky human examples used by his philosophy tutor, thus anthropology became the backbone of Professor Cohen's academic career.

Now, after retiring as Queen Margaret University's first principal earlier this year, Prof Cohen finds himself preoccupied with yet more intransigent questions.

The long-running issue of how to fund universities has been gnawing at him.

As fears grow across the sector that raising the cap on tuition fees in England, expected next year, will create an imbalance of a rich England, with the best staff and equipment, set against a second-class Scotland, Prof Cohen believes it is time to look more closely at potential solutions.

He says: "So far, the Scottish Government has just about been able to keep the funding of Scottish universities comparable with English universities.

"But if the cap is raised to 5,000, or in the case of some, significantly higher, there is no way the Scottish Government could keep Scottish universities comparable."

Closer collaboration between universities may be a solution.

Prof Cohen paints a picture of universities sharing expensive, specialist equipment and giving students at one university the choice of taking a module at another, through use of the internet and technology.

He says: "It would vastly increase the range of specialist education available to them.

"As a masters student at Napier, you would have the right to select modules offered by Robert Gordon's or West of Scotland, and again you take these courses virtually."

Whatever the solution, one must be found. "Many people talk about there being too many universities in Scotland and a need to consolidate," Prof Cohen says. "But there are creative ways to consolidate which don't require subtracting value.

"Investment in research and development is way below OECD levels, so what are we going to do? We cannot carry on the way we are. We have to make a radical change."

He says it is up to the universities themselves to bite the bullet and work together.

He adds: "You have to face reality – there is not going to be vastly increasing money for universities."

A key problem for the newer universities is that status never came with the necessary cash.

Prof Cohen says: "When new universities were created in 1992, this really was a confidence trick perpetrated by John Major's government, because it was done by driving down a unit of teaching resource."

Post-1992 institutions have battled for research funding ever since – a process that favours the long-established universities.

Prof Cohen believes the time is right for an independent and comprehensive review of how universities and students are funded.

A task force, set up after the last budget to examine the future for universities, was banned from talking about cash, he claims.

"The government would not have funding on the agenda for the task force," he says.

"It was a useful exercise in that there was a dialogue between the government and universities, and a more intensive dialogue than I can remember any government having with universities. What has not happened is that the fruits of that dialogue have been converted into action."

It is clearly time for those questions to be answered.