Leading Article: University shake-up needed
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.It may seem an odd time to be recommending a profound rethink of the British higher education system but Professor Nigel Thrift, vice chancellor of Warwick University, believes that, if we don't do it now, we risk a downhill slide. He may be right. In his RSA/Fulbright Commission Lecture last night he argued that we face intense global competition from China as well as city states like Singapore and Abu Dhabi, and other European countries such as Germany and Denmark, not to mention Canada, Australia and the US.
Higher education is something we British do well – and it is that quality that may suffer in the years ahead. The top four universities, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and Imperial, are large and probably OK. But it's the next tier down that is vulnerable, the 30 or so universities who could struggle as competition increases and public spending cuts eat away budgets.
We should emulate the Californian system, he believes. It has public and private universities that are big as well as small, residential and commuter, religious and secular. These institutions can specialise in what they are good at, thus avoiding duplication. We should at the very least consider more collaboration, as well as mergers and more private universities. The problem is that we aren't ambitious enough about our university system. We should become so.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments