Call for more focused research ‘risks fostering academic elitism’

A drive to make UK research more focused and targeted needs to be carefully managed to avoid fostering elitism, exacerbating financial issues and leaving the country poorly prepared for unforeseen problems, experts have warned.

In a message that appeared to be resonating in Whitehall and inside institutions, former business secretary Lord Mandelson has urged the country to be more specialised in its approach to research and to double down on existing strengths.

“Universities may need to review where they focus their research effort in order to ensure that their activities are sustainable,” the recent Universities UK blueprint for higher education – for which Lord Mandelson was a commissioner – says, adding that a survey had found that a third of university managers were considering retrenching from research activity as part of cost-cutting efforts.

While it was “entirely sensible” for institutions to review research portfolios and priorities, and there might be a case for a “sharper focus”, particularly in less research-intensive universities, “closing down or switching resources wholesale from entire major disciplines feels like a high-risk strategy”, said James Wilsdon, professor of research policy at UCL.

“We just don’t know what combination of disciplinary, methodological and related expertise and skills are going to be required to tackle problems that we don’t yet know about,” he warned.

John Womersley, a former chief executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, said he could see a situation in which “some universities focus back on to their core strengths”.

“Places historically very engineering-focused, for example, might become more engineering-focused again because that is what they are internationally known as instead of trying to be a university that competes across the whole spectrum.”

But any institution attempting to do this will face a backlash from staff and students, cautioned Professor Womersley, now a special adviser on science and technology at the University of Edinburgh, and many will be reluctant to abandon entire disciplines.

“To actually close down a department, like a few places have done, then you start to impact on your ability to attract students, and international students, in particular, are the financial lifeblood of this.”

Professor Womersley said the challenge for the government and the research councils was to manage any retrenchment in a strategic way or risk a situation where elite universities grow their share of research and weaker ones shrink, which would have “consequences for levelling up and put the places in financial trouble in deeper financial trouble”.

The new science minister, Lord Vallance of Balham, has hinted at creating a research funding pot for targeted projects that further the government’s “missions” – clean energy, economic growth, the NHS, equality of opportunity and tackling crime – which could be one way of supporting universities to pursue certain agendas.

Professor Womersley said this would have to be substantial to make a difference, and Lord Vallance might need to go further and attempt wider reform of parts of the research system – for example, accepting grant applications only from consortia of universities – if he wants to do more than merely encourage institutions to act in certain ways.

Kieron Flanagan, professor of science and technology policy at the University of Manchester, said Labour’s missions might prove to be too broad for this type of approach to be effective.

“Whilst I think we shouldn’t be worried about the idea of mission-oriented R&D, and that’s historically been a big part of the UK system and other advanced economies, I’m not sure the Labour missions really lend themselves to that kind of approach,” Professor Flanagan said.

“They would need to be translated into a lot of different missions and priorities. There is a big question mark about how that happens. This creates a lot of space for researchers and scientists to help do that, to help set those agendas.”

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com