Vice-Chancellors Launch New Lobby Group

Wed, May 03, 2006

Source: Guardian Unlimited

Jockeying for position between universities in the UK intensified this week as a group of middle ranking institutions announced they have set up a body to lobby for their interests.

Jockeying for position between universities in the UK intensified this week as a group of middle ranking institutions announced they have set up a body to lobby for their interests.

The alliance has attracted 18 universities - both new and old - and hopes to enrol up to 30 that are not represented by the three existing lobbying groups. Its first action is to press for the retention of the 2008 research assessment exercise, which some vice-chancellors are trying to scrap.

The universities who attended an inaugural meeting in Oxford last week are Aston, Bournemouth, Cranfield, De Montfort, Hertfordshire, Kent, Leicester, Lincoln, Manchester Metropolitan, Newport, Nottingham Trent, Open University, Oxford Brookes, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Salford, Sheffield Hallam, and the University of Wales.

Though the formation of the Alliance has been formally welcomed by Universities UK, which represents all the vice-chancellors, it will prompt fears that the sector is becoming increasingly divided in its approach to government.

The Russell group of 19 large research-intensive institutions, including Oxbridge and the civic universities like Birmingham and Leeds, is the oldest and most influential of the lobbying groups. Initially it met informally in London's Russell Hotel, later pressing strongly for the adoption of variable tuition fees and keeping research funding focused on the top institutions.

The Coalition of Modern Universities (now known as the CMU) followed to champion the new universities, making the case for more funding to widen access and trying to break the stranglehold on research funding.

The 1994 group are small and research-intensive, but pride themselves on good teaching - members include Exeter, Durham and Essex.

The Alliance convenor, John Craven, vice-chancellor of Portsmouth, said the group would be seeking to put its views to ministers. "The universities at the meeting last week were unanimous in wanting to maintain an integrated portfolio of teaching, research and other contributions to regional and national prosperity."

Prof Craven said proposals by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, to scrap the RAE and replace it with a formula for distributing research funds - after behind the scenes lobbying by some vice-chancellors - would stifle new research teams. Several universities in the Alliance had nurtured departments that eventually gained high ratings in the RAE.

Prof Craven said: "Within the universities who work together in the Alliance there are many examples of successful research investment across science, technology, social sciences, arts and humanities.

"This has been demonstrated in previous assessment exercises, and the Alliance is concerned to ensure that future funding methods do not stifle these developing areas of research."

Other issues on which the Alliance wants to be consulted include the regional roles of universities and the growth of knowledge transfer initiatives in higher education.

He hopes about 30 universities would join the Alliance, including some in Scotland that have expressed interest.

A spokesman for UUK said: "The diversity of our sector is one of its great strengths. We will be working closely with this new grouping within Universities UK's membership."

Sheffield Hallam University recently quit the CMU when the vice-chancellor, Diana Green, complained it was campaigning too negatively. She told the Times Higher Education Supplement: "What started to make me feel very uncomfortable was the fact that the articulation of these views to the media and to ministers was not constructive; it was moaning. I thought the point of any interest group was to present what one was good at."

www.guardian.co.uk