The Government plan just released entitled ‘The Future of Universities in a Knowledge Economy’, despite its euphemistic title, crosses an important line. Its basic goal is to make universities work more closely with industry, thereby inducing industry not only to fund them but also to design their courses. This is the latest stage of the Rothschild revolution initiated by Thatcher which was designed to inculcate the market and market values into every part of British life, and particularly the education system. Higher education was no longer to be an academe of learning, it was a preparation for a job, a necessary early appendage of a well-functioning capitalist system. This process, like so many others, now continues as smoothly under New Labour as it did under the Tories. Government funding has already switched substantially away from the arts and humanities in favour of science, technology and engineering,. The intense focus on economic competitiveness and technological competence is already sidelining the concept of a university as an intellectual experience that widens horizons before the strong economic and social pressures of early adulthood squeeze out such refinements. This plan takes it further still.

Whilst the utilitarian industry-focused orientation to higher education is once again marginalising further the liberal arts degree approach, the other key dimension to this plan is left unspoken. There is huge pressure behind the scenes to raise tuition fees above the current level of £3,225 a year. To ease this bitter pill in advance, three other themes pervade this Government paper. One is that there will be more emphasis in future on the comparative ‘consumer’ value of different universities in terms of drop-out rates, contact hours with senior tutors, and future earnings potential, to make universities cater more closely to student needs.
Another, following the Milburn report, is the revival of the idea of universities as engines of social mobility, by using ‘contextual data’ about students’ backgrounds to identify potential in applicants who may come from low-performing schools and have hidden talents even though they didn’t necessarily get top results. And the third lead-in to a significant boost in tuition fees is the emphasis on recession, that the fat times are past and the lean ones are here, so raising the fees and bringing in more and more industry finance is the only way out – a convenient position for New Labour who have wanted this outcome all along.
There always has to be a balance in higher education between the liberal arts and straight preparation for an economic slot. But the market fundamentalist culture of the last 3 decades has swung the balance far too far towards the latter functionalist concept. Human beings are more than economic functionaries and financial earners, and that wider, richer, more diversified, multidimensional facet of university life needs more attention than this plan gives it. The commendable goal of promoting social mobility is also inconsistent with a big increase in tuition fees which will undoubtedly swing university entry towards richer pupils.

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