Higher education in Britain has changed out of all recognition in
recent years. We have moved from an elite to a mass system with
more students, broader and more complex curricula, huge variations
in what it means to be a student, and with institutions forging
different relations to both the wider society and to the state.
Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that the very understanding of
what is meant by higher education has little in common with how it
was interpreted but twenty years ago.
The purpose of this book is to place these radical changes
within the context of the governance of British higher education.
How has the system of governance changed? Do British higher
education institutions still exercise autonomous control over their
development as was widely believed to be the case but a few years
ago? These questions are pursued through a three-pronged strategy.
Firstly, to examine the institutional changes which have occurred
since the 1988 Education Reform and the emergence of the funding
council model of governance. In particular, we want to know how the
various institutional actors a" the higher education institutions,
the government departments and the funding councils a" interact
with one another to shape policy outcomes. Secondly, to explore the
political context within which these institutional actors have to
work. This means examining the role of the political parties,
policy networks and the parliamentary forces all of which have a
major stake in influencing the direction of higher education
policy. This section of the book incorporates the move towards
political devolution in the United Kingdom and examines what is
different, and what is similar, about highereducation policy-making
in Scotland and Wales in comparison to England. Thirdly, the book
observes the process of policy-making and change in relation to
critical issues: the funding of higher education, the research
assessment exercises, the quality assurance regime, and the
widening participation agenda. In effect it examines policy-making
in action.
The conclusion looks backwards and forwards. The main themes are
highlighted and then two important questions are raised. How stable
is the current model of governance? The answer to this question
requires an analysis of the pressures for change and of the
alternative models that could emerge in its place. The British
system of higher education needs to be located within its European,
even global, context. Is the system of governance capable of
responding positively to the challenges that are likely to emerge
given that higher education is now an international commodity?
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