Byrne and Clarke, The University Challenge

Ed Byrne and Charles Clarke, The University Challenge: Changing universities in a changing world (Harlow: Pearson, 2020)

Written by the Ed Bryne, President and Principal of King’s College London, and Charles Clarke, former secretary of state for education and skills in the Labour Government, this book offers an interesting and timely(ish) take on the many challenges facing British universities.  I say timely(ish) since the Coronavirus pandemic has obviously caused sweeping changes to both society and to education, which will mean that universities will almost never be quite the same again.  It is interesting to reflect that this book is among the last books on universities written during the ‘old normal’.  A case could therefore be made that the book is out of date barely a month or two after it was published.  But I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss its insights.  Many of the underlying theme will likely remain much the same (e.g. ‘Who benefits from a university education?’ – students and society), and the Coronavirus crisis will likely accelerate some of the trends discussed in the book (e.g. online learning and digital technology).  Our current situation also highlights the reliance of many British universities on international students, which may or may not be repeated as the crisis passes. 

The book is written from a middle of the road, pragmatic perspective, as might be expected when one of the co-authors was a minister in the New Labour government.  It is not against the idea that students should pay for their education, although it does make suggestions about how this could be done a little more fairly (although most of the proposals in that area seem more designed to bring financial stability and independence to universities).  It is focused on universities in the United Kingdom, but does have an international perspective, since Ed Byrne was VC at Monash University.  These international comparisons are interesting and help to put UK higher education into a wider context.  For example, with more universities teaching in English throughout the world, the advantage gained by universities in English speaking countries is likely to be lessened; China is going to have a number of top-10 universities in the next 10 years. 

There is some discussion of Widening Participation, which is one of the main reasons why I read the book.  Here the role of the Office for Students and the importance of Access and Participation plans is made very clear in a way that I’d understood before, but hadn’t fully appreciated.  For example, the University of Bristol is committed to spending 24.9% of its ‘Higher Fee Income’ (HFI) – which is estimated to be between £51m and £53m – on access and participation up to 2024-25.  This is divided between Access Investment 5.9% (about £3m per year), Financial Support, 18.5%, and Research and Evaluation 0.5%.  If this isn’t done, the OfS would stop the university from charging higher fees.

One other important thing I got from the book was the importance of the field of history for at least three of the four ‘key contributions’ of universities to addressing global change, which are discussed throughout the book:

• Understanding and interpreting the process of change.
• Offering approaches that would harness the process of change for general benefit. 
• Educating and training to high quality the specialist workers whose skills are necessary to address change properly.
• Creating a general intellectually engaging climate and culture across societies that promotes the virtues of understanding and science. 

Given the value of a historical training (or ‘change science’) I came away feeling that we’re significantly undervaluing what we can offer to the university.  The important of ‘problem-focused’ interdisciplinary research was also highlighted, especially towards the end of the book.  This is something I could do more of with my work, and with ‘Critical Physical Geography.’