As universities assess the impact of the Government’s funding cuts, there is better news from at least one part of the sector which is involved in a campaign to increase the size and quality of its research. The last thing education needs is a new acronym, but welcome to NTEU. It stands for New Type […]
In response to the 1994 Group report ‘Analysis of postgraduate provision at UK universities’ Libby Aston, Director of University Alliance, said: “This report is a helpful contribution to the evidence base on postgraduate provision but it is not the whole picture. “Alliance universities deliver nearly 20% of all postgraduate provision. Alliance universities awarded nearly 1,200 PhDs in 2007-08 […]
A strong case for both public and private investment in higher education Any discussion of funding and student finance should take place within a shared understanding of the nature of universities as both public and private institutions. The question of appropriate balance between public and private funding should not be driven only by economic pressures […]
Publicly funded PhDs should become the preserve of the research elite, with doctoral students supported by the state only if they work in departments of a certain standard. The 1994 Group of small research-intensive universities has called for measures that would result in a far greater concentration of doctoral students within the sector. The proposals […]
It is a year since the now-familiar “pockets of excellence” were identified by the 2008 research assessment exercise in universities traditionally considered to be teaching-focused. Despite their often shoestring budgets, these units have shaken up the established order, reversing the trend of concentrating funding in an ever smaller number of top institutions. As a result […]
Next month, a university in the North-east of England will be opening a southern outpost in London when the University of Northumbria sets up shop in trendy Islington. The Northumbria school of design in Newcastle, which is famous for its fashion degrees and award-winning fashion students, hopes to take the capital by storm with its […]
Responding to the Government’s Grant letter to HEFCE published 22 December 2009 [1] Libby Aston, Director of University Alliance, said: “Investing public funding in higher education is just that – an investment. “UK universities are generators of economic growth and wealth creation. The UK invests 1.3% of GDP in its higher education sector and universities, in return, […]
Funding the best research wherever it is found across the sector, rather than just in large research-intensive universities, is what has given the UK research base its international edge. This is the message from the University Alliance, the mission group representing 22 “research-engaged” institutions, presenting a new analysis that examines the relationship between quality and […]
University Alliance has today published its first report ‘Concentration and Diversity: understanding the relationship between excellence, concentration and critical mass in UK research’. Commenting on the report Director of University Alliance, Libby Aston, said: “Future policy on research concentration has seemed a little uncertain since RAE 2008 results demonstrated that peaks of world-leading research excellence were distributed more widely […]
University Alliance has today published its first report ‘Concentration and Diversity: understanding the relationship between excellence, concentration and critical mass in UK research’. Commenting on the report Director of University Alliance, Libby Aston, said: “Future policy on research concentration has seemed a little uncertain since RAE 2008 results demonstrated that peaks of world-leading research excellence were distributed more widely than […]