'Slow corruption' that threatens our universities
Leading historian says that the scramble for foreign students' fees is destroying our academic reputationMartin Bright
Sunday August 8, 2004
The Observer
SourceBritain's university system is in terminal decline, according to one of the country's most prominent academics.
Dr David Starkey, fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and star TV historian, said that standards were being driven downwards in the struggle for funds and that universities risked destroying their international reputation by awarding degrees to substandard foreign students in return for lucrative fees.
'We are introducing the slow corruption of our universities as heads of department are pushed by reduced budgets into lowering standards,' Starkey said. 'Until 10 years ago British education was seen as the gold standard around the world and our institutions and examinations as incorruptible. '
But he warned that the scramble to recruit lucrative overseas students risked 'killing the goose that laid the golden egg' of foreign fees.
'The word is starting to get around in Asia and the Middle East that these degrees are not worth having.'
He spoke out following revelations in The Observer last week that in some institutions degrees were effectively for sale. One university professor at a former polytechnic was found to have ordered his staff to 'minimise' the number of failing students by marking up those at risk of failing because there had been a drop in applications. An Oxford don alleged it was now 'nigh on impossible' to fail a master's degree. Meanwhile, at Swansea University an inquiry has been launched into why five academic departments are being closed to make way for a new management school to attract, in the words of the vice-chancellor, 'the largely untapped markets of the Far East'.
Starkey said that the government needed to choose between a fully state-funded system and allowing a US-style market with universities free to charge whatever fees they wish. He favoured the latter and said lecturers at top universities had to stop the 'sentimental pretence' that colleagues at former polytechnics were working at high-quality institutions.
'We have to abandon the idea that all universities are free and equal and set up a genuine market in fees,' he said. 'Top universities could charge high fees and begin the rapid build-up of scholarship funds for especially able children of the poor. Blogsville Polytechnic could charge £500 a year for their courses, but at least everyone would know they were getting something on the cheap.'
Starkey said the problems were endemic, but further issues needed to be raised. The current system of funding by research performance required immediate reform, he said, because it led academics to the neglect of teaching of undergraduates. The controversial Research Assessment Exercise, which will next take place in 2008, judges academic departments on the quality of their research and forms the basis of funding without taking into account the standard of teaching.
Starkey also claimed that some students needed remedial teaching for basic literacy and said there was a growing need for four-year degrees to make up for the poor quality of first-year undergraduates.
The Observer has been contacted by academics from across the country who have provided further allegations of the lowering of academic standards to attract foreign students and the silencing of those who try to speak out.
One experienced lecturer at the University of Plymouth said that a new English language centre had been set up specifically to attract overseas students, especially from the Far East, to the campus business centre. The source, who taught at the centre, said staff had raised the issue of students who had been taken on to courses when it was obvious they had forged their qualifications. Other students were genuine but were being exploited by the university.
The source said: 'I saw a lot of dedicated, hard-working Chinese students who were just being used to make money. But already some Chinese parents and companies are beginning to question the quality of the courses.'
The University of Plymouth said all students had to reach a minimum standard of English and checks were made of all documentation. 'We would certainly wish to know about students with forged documents, and would encourage staff to report any concerns to their line manager,' said a spokeswoman.
David Wells, a former lecturer said there had been a 'climate of fear' at Bournemouth University for at least a decade. 'It is appalling that any educationalist has to remain anonymous to expose the increasing devaluation of academic awards.'
The Observer has also received documents from the investigation by University visitor Philip Havers QC into the closure of five academic departments at Swansea University. Nearly 300 members of the university have petitioned him on the closures and whether they are linked to the opening of a new management school and a much-publicised recruitment drive for foreign students.
Questions have been raised about the relationship between the vice-chancellor, Professor Richard B Davies, and the new head of the management school, Professor Patrick O'Farrell.
The submission confirms that O'Farrell was best man at the vice-chancellor's wedding, that they worked together in a 'tightly-knit research group' at the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology and have written research papers together.
This was not declared at the time of the appointment. The university claims the relationship had not been close since 1985 and that at the time of the appointment last October there was no 'financial, close familial, a sexual/romantic or close association of any other kind' that should have prevented Davies from chairing the committee which selected O'Farrell for the post.