Lessons to be learned

For universities saddled with a broken funding system and dyspeptic political overlords, there are plenty of challenges that are shared whatever their individual circumstances.

That collective pain was acknowledged by the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford when she pledged last year to use her position to advocate for all in the sector, not just the elites.

This promise from the head of the world’s leading university reflected real generosity of spirit, but also that England’s funding crisis is a problem whether you are Oxford or Oxford Brookes.

The same is true of many other challenges.

Sky-high international student numbers, once the preserve of a few outliers such as the London School of Economics, are now a feature rather than a bug – the only way to balance the books.

So when policy changes chip away at that foundation, it destabilises institutions of all shapes and sizes.

But alongside these shared challenges, universities also face health problems that are specific to their own circumstances, market segments or areas of provision.

For institutions that are, or have historically been, heavily invested in teacher training, the government’s “market review” has posed an additional set of challenges, which are explored in our cover story.

For some, the government intervention has been catastrophic – effectively stripping universities with long and proud histories of teacher education of their right to provide it, following an assessment process that at times has seemed counter to previously positive reviews of performance.

For others, the assault has been less abrupt, but a combination of falling recruitment, government interference at the level of what and how courses should be taught, and constant chopping and changing of the rules and expectations imposed on providers have been exceptionally difficult to manage.

Some of the issues are unique to teacher education – the level of instruction handed down by government about curricula and pedagogy would be considered extraordinary and unacceptable for most other areas of university provision.

Others will be familiar to universities in more general terms, particularly the way that the ground on which they are being expected to plan and operate keeps changing.

In this sense, the crisis facing higher education institutions that provide teacher training is a microcosm of the bigger picture, replicating the chaotic handling of universities that can only thrive when they are able to plan and deliver for the long-term.

It is also important to acknowledge that, while all are affected by the uncertainty of the operating environment, not all are affected equally.

Some have had their accreditation cancelled, others have not; some are seeing catastrophic declines in recruitment, others are managing OK; some are in a position to push back harder than others and potentially to get out of teacher education if the environment becomes intolerable.

The view offered by a professor of education at the University of Cambridge – that “we are fully committed to quality teacher education” but that “if it got to a position where Cambridge felt that they could no longer do quality teacher education, then there would be some discussions around that for sure” – simply might not be an option open to a modern university with a significant proportion of its student numbers in this field.

Ultimately, any solution to the problems universities are facing in teacher education will have to mirror solutions to the overarching challenge facing higher education at present: a return to some clarity and stability about what universities are there to do, and how that will be paid for and supported on an ongoing, sustainable basis.

Contrary to public opinion at present, universities are in fact masters of reinvention that have managed to stay current and relevant over hundreds of years and through crises of all kinds – political, social and economic.

But resilience alone is not a recipe for success, and at the moment the sense that everything will be different again a year from now is making proper planning all but impossible.

john.gill@timeshighereducation.com