The invisible hand and OfS policymaking

Opinions diverge as to whether the Office for Students (OfS) actually exists. Jo Johnson brought the legal establishment forward with great fanfare – but the new sector regulator for English HE has few staff and has yet to regulate anything or to announce how it will do so. It remains in “shadow” form, perhaps like Voldemort or someone wearing a cloak of elvenkind.

The first board meeting took place recently and the first student panel meeting was a few weeks ago. We now know it has agreed with the sector recommendations for the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) to have the official designations for data and quality respectively. But this week we are interested in whether OfS will develop new policy, as well as implement it, and how the new regulator sees its role in HE policymaking.

The initial plan for OfS was that it was not going to be a policy body. “We don’t do policy” (beyond the legally-established role in widening participation, access, and social mobility) was a rule of thumb used in the thinking as the nascent regulator was developed last year. But recently we’ve seen demands that OfS take policy stands on a number of issues – high profile examples being vice chancellor pay and free speech. The industrial strategy went even further and imagined a role for OfS in assessing higher level skills gaps across different regions. It all sounded a bit HEFCE-esque.

But is “no policy” a sustainable approach? Board meetings will still have to discuss everything from support for specific subjects to ministerial requirements. There will also, we understand, be an annual letter. And it’s clear that the new regulator is getting dragged into wider policy questions by ministers all the time.

So while it’s increasingly clear that OfS does exist, shadowy or otherwise, we are still a little unclear about how it will interact with policymaking.

If a policy vacuum was to emerge, how much will be left to the so-called “invisible hand” of the market, ministerial whim, or even big data? These are outstanding questions but critical ones, and this morning we ask these and more, look again in detail at what OfS is up to with a new timeline of its activity, and publish a beginner’s guide to the transitional period as the new system comes online. We also hear about the experiences of a student member of the Dearing Review and the perspective of the funding council in Wales as the UK’s systems continue on a path of policy divergence.

Read more on Wonkhe:

• A beginner’s guide to the English regulatory transitional period. Catherine Boyd and Arthi Nachiappan run down the key dates along the timeline and what the sector should expect as OfS develops.
• How will OfS do policy when its levers are broken? David Kernohan contemplates the alternatives: life under the market, ministerial whim, or big data.
• The life of an “only” student – We interview Simon Wright, former student member of the Dearing Review and now registrar at Cardiff University.
• Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Office for Students, introduces the student panel and its role in the new regulator.
• David Blaney, CEO of Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), talks about the strengths and challenges of increasingly divergent higher education systems as OfS comes online.

The University Show - Episode 1

The rumours are true… Wonkhe has started a podcast. The first episode in the first season of The University Show, supported by the UPP Foundation, was published last week. We talked free speech at universities, UCAS end of cycle data and reviewed the first few weeks of the new universities minister.

The show will evolve and the format will remain flexible to allow us to talk about important issues of the day, tackle meta themes impacting on the sector, and bring together new and different voices from across the sector who will feature across the series. You can listen, download, or subscribe to the season here.

You spin me write round

The review of higher education funding and student finance is now inching further through the Brexit-dominated political chaos of Whitehall. First announced by Theresa May as a “major” review at the Conservative Party Conference, then promptly unannounced by then universities minister Jo Johnson, it’s been on a rather strange political journey. Last year, the party’s general election manifesto also promised a review of funding across “tertiary education as a whole”, but opinion has been sharply divided about whether to treat higher education separately or roll it into this wider review. But the terms of the forthcoming review have been gradually pinned down in recent weeks, and it’s now heading towards the cabinet “write round” process (if it isn’t there already) where other ministers and departments can weigh in. That means that we can expect a full announcement very soon – perhaps next week.

As for the shape of the review, it looks increasingly likely to include both FE and HE. Indeed, looking at the wider “tertiary” education landscape, and quite a lot could be on the table, including student support and maintenance, tuition fees, and more. Recent speculation in the press that this means headline tuition fee levels are definitely going to be cut (the most recent chatter has been talk of the return of Ed Miliband's doomed £6,000 policy) may be a little bit premature – it's certainly one quite possible eventuality – but there’s a long and politically dangerous road ahead for the review to navigate first.

DORA, dear, a theme idea?

Management is more than just data. If career-changing decisions that affect researchers are justified solely by recourse to data, then there isn’t much managing going on. Last week saw the relaunch of the Declaration on Research Assessment at an event run by the Forum for Responsible Metrics, an international statement of principles governing the – dare we say – rational use of metrics in management decision-making for research. Many UK institutions are signing up, many more will follow. The “Metric Tide” report of 2015 highlighted the dangers of an over-reliance on citation-based measures of research quality. There’s more to be done, but we are already beginning to turn the corner towards a more humane sector.

Our research funders are leading the way, with every UK research council signed up to the principles. Institutions are in agreement with much of what is said, but are slightly slower off the mark in making a public commitment. It’s one of those irregular verbs – I use data carefully to support decision-making, you are over-reliant on uncaveated metrics, they use inappropriate measures to control and shape the lives of academics. But it is a problem faced around the world – international initiatives like DORA and the Leiden Manifesto, seen alongside the work of UK initiatives like the Forum for Responsible Metrics, are a welcome cessation of the h-index arms race.

One intriguing question came up at the event: with the growing impact of TEF, LEO, and data-led institutional monitoring, are teaching metrics now more egregious than those purporting to measure research? Do we therefore need a version of DORA for managing teaching-related activity? And if we had one, would OfS be able to sign up to it?

Read more on Wonkhe:

• Researcher Penny Andrews asks: has the time come for responsible metrics?

You might have missed on Wonkhe

Ellen Hazelkorn and Tom Boland explore the erosion of public trust in higher education and the ever-expanding and changing requirements of public accountability systems. This is the latest in our HE Futures series.

With REF and TEF already established, what will the Knowledge Exchange Framework bring to the table? Tom Lyscom of the British Academy untangles what KEF might actually mean.

Joss Winn and Richard Hall suggest a different approach to leadership for universities.

Anand Shukla, chief executive of Brightside, explains how universities can redraw the map on social mobility through better coordination.

And finally, Registrarism has an update on the strange online trend of students eating capsules of detergent. What a time to be alive.

What else is going on

Free speech update

Over the weekend, universities minister Sam Gyimah used an article in The Sunday Times to wade into the “rather chilling” culture of free speech denial on campus. Although claims of censorship in the incidents he cites have been largely debunked (see below), it’s clear that this is a cause that he is going to take up. He also wrote of a new proposal to use the Charity Commission to regulate the activities of students’ unions: “It needs to ensure that its rules are clear and don’t discourage student unions from hosting controversial speakers, and it should protect free speech on all sides.” And that he will be taking action to “bring together all the relevant bodies to prioritise simplifying the rules and regulations.”

On the site: To platform or not to platform? Team Wonkhe took a look at the evidence of some of the most commonly cited examples of “no platform” at UK universities and finds that there was clearly more going on behind the hyperbolic headlines.

Registrarism takes a not-so-subtle look at the latest edition of the free speech rankings that have adorned headlines over the last few days.

Student data

HESA published student data last week in a snazzy new format which shows that there was an 8% year-on-year growth in postgraduate numbers, 39% of postgraduate entrants were non-UK domicile students, three-fifths were female, and one-third were studying part-time. The number of sub-bachelor undergraduate enrolments continued to decline, with 8% fewer in 2016–17 than the previous year. There was another year-on-year decline in the number of over thirties studying, and an increase in the numbers of students with declared disabilities. UK-wide, there were 20,000 fewer part-time students, a continuation of the alarming decline in recent years.

Remembering David Watson

Last week saw the third anniversary of the sad passing of David Watson – a true giant of higher education policy and leadership. We remembered his life at the time with a tribute by Rob Cuthbert to the “best friend of HE that anyone can imagine”. Three years on, we still try to live up to his good example at Wonkhe, valuing humanity, insight, good humour, and friendship to the sector. And not a day goes by that we don’t wonder what he would have made of everything going on right now… We miss you, David.

Also on this week's HE agenda...

The Westminster and Holyrood Parliaments are in recess this week.

Monday 12th February

• The Higher Education Academy will open its National Teaching Fellow scheme for applications.
• The Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies at UCL’s Institute of Education will publish a paper on tuition fees.

Tuesday 13th February

• Wonkhe’s editor, Mark Leach, will interview University of Birmingham Vice Chancellor David Eastwood at a staff forum.

Wednesday 14th February

• The Association of University Administrators (AUA) will hold an event on working and living abroad in China.
• HESA is holding an HE Business and Community Interactions Conference.
• The Universities Human Resources (UHR) South and M25 networks groups will meet.

Thursday 15th February

• Jisc will hold its “dev.ac.uk” conference at Aston University to showcase the work of developers at institutions.
• HESA will publish the first release of data on students at alternative providers in 2016–17.
• The Higher Education Academy will hold its Principal Fellow writing retreat in London.
• The Student Engagement (TSEP) conference is being held in London.

Friday 16th February

• AUA will hold an event on supporting and managing the future of student mobility.
• It is the second day of Jisc’s “dev.ac.uk” conference at Aston University.
• QAA is holding a Higher Education in Apprenticeships Advisory Group.
• UHR’s South West network groups will meet.