With its drive towards the market,the government’s higher education green paper risk undermining the public and educational benefits of universities.
Back in November, the higher education green paper fell on universities like a brick in a pond on a still day. From its envisaged reforms of governance and regulation, or its plans to promote greater competition between private providers and public universities,and its proposals for a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), the green paper signals ever greater marketisation of higher education. Debates ensued, or opinion pieces were penned,and formal responses to the consultation were drafted and redrafted. Since mid-January, the end of the consultation period, or we have heard miniature from BIS. This silence may be explained by the Herculean task involved in reading all of the 600 or so responses that the department has received. The unwelcome announcement of plans to shut the BIS Sheffield office,where most of its higher education experts are based, probably hasn’t helped matters.
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Source: theguardian.com