ÌÇÐÄVlog

The leaders of a new consortium of research-led universities have said they want it to work collaboratively rather than as a ¡°self-serving¡± mission group to fight back against the competition that is ¡°killing the sector¡±.

ResearchPlus, which held its first official event at the Labour conference on 30 September, is hoping to ¡°change the discourse¡± around universities, according to vice-chancellors gathered in Liverpool.

Some of the universities ¨C Essex, Royal Holloway, SOAS and Sussex ¨C were previously part of the 1994 Group. Sasha Roseneil, vice-chancellor of Sussex, said it was widely recognised that there has been a gap in the organisation of UK higher education since?that organisation¡¯s demise in 2013.

¡°I think there is a real gap in the voices that are articulated in the higher education sphere, and it¡¯s the voice of research focused universities that are not currently being heard, and they are universities like the 10 of us who¡¯ve come together.

¡°We think there¡¯s an urgent need at the moment for our universities to be able to speak collectively about our strengths, about what we can contribute, and about what we need in order to fully contribute to the industrial strategy - but more widely to societal wellbeing, to public services, to the public sector, to human wellbeing.¡±

Roseneil said there was ¡°enormous unrealised potential¡± among ResearchPlus ¨C which was billing itself as a ¡°collaboration¡± rather than a ¡°mission group¡±.

¡°I think mission groups don¡¯t have a great reputation¡­they are seen as quite self-serving, and we do want to work for the greater good of the higher education and research sector, but also in the country.¡±

She said she hoped the group can find a better way of organising higher education than the current ¡°broken competitive market system¡± which has done ¡°enormous damage¡±.

Andrew Jones, vice-chancellor of Brunel University of London, another of the founding members, said the UK sector has had 20 years of strong competition, which has been beneficial in some respects ¨C but it was ¡°a different world now¡±.

Jones noted that the thousands of universities in China are ¡°extremely strategic¡± and that?Mario Draghi in the European Union?has begun clustering universities together into alliances.

¡°I¡¯m not for one minute advocating a Chinese style approach in the UK¡­[but] we need to respond to those questions of how the world is evolving for the UK economy to be competitive.

¡°I think there is a real strategic need for us as a sector to respond to the same thing that the modern industrial strategy is responding to for the economy, so I think there¡¯s a really urgent need for us to step up that approach because we¡¯re moving towards a more collaborative environment out of necessity.¡±

The other founding universities of ResearchPlus are City St George¡¯s, University of London, Keele, Hull, the Open University, and Ulster.

Paul Bartholomew, vice-chancellor of Ulster University said there is an ¡°altruistic¡± element to ResearchPlus and its support for the public good which he said will be needed to help change the ¡°discourse¡± around universities.

¡°We feel that there is a public perception that perhaps universities are a bit self-serving, and it¡¯s something that¡¯s set around prestige rather than purpose.

¡°I do think there¡¯s some precursor change in the narrative that¡¯s probably needed before politicians feel it¡¯s safe to continue with those approaches of investment and not hit a cynical public.¡±

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com