Following the 2015 Consultation on Higher Education and tracking the divides

One of the most significant questions at the time was whether Universities in England would be allowed to raise their fees. Jo Johnson had already announced what the maximum fee might be for those who would be entitled to raise their fees (£9250, which assumed a 2.8% inflation rate at the time), and all English Universities raised their fees for 2017/18. In Wales there was no raise in fees, as that had become politically impossible after the election of June 2017, although the original decision was put off till after the publication of the Diamond report, which was published in September 2016.

The Higher Education and Research Bill led to one of the most significant shake ups of the Higher Education sector within England and one that has inevitably had important knock-on effects for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Looking at the legislation at the time, I identified two areas that I predicted would lead to growing divisions that have proved to be very difficult to bring back together. Any attempt to do so, especially for a potentially new Labour government following the next election could be particularly complex.

The first of these has been the divide between research and teaching. By transforming HEFCE into an Office for Students and by removing all research elements of HEFCE’s previous role and placing them into a new body proposed in the Nurse Review (Research UK), the legislation separated the two arms of the higher education sector. The subsequent restructuring of departmental responsibilities following Theresa May’s reshuffle in June 2017 entrenched this further, with higher education going in with the Department for Education, while responsibility for science and research stayed with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Jo Johnson, as the minister for Higher Education found himself answerable to two separate Departments.

Despite many further reshuffles, and two or three new governments, this has not changed, and subsequent Secretaries of State have found themselves in a similar, if not worse, state than Jo Johnson. All of us in the sector suffered the same fate, finding our teaching role and our research roles pulling in very different directions under very different scrutiny and expectations. For universities, such as Swansea, that prided themselves on their excellence in both learning and teaching and research, this proved to be particularly difficult.

The other divide that has developed from the legislation is that between the higher education sectors in England, Wales and the other nations. Sitting at the heart of the Higher Education and Research Bill was a mechanism for the expansion of English HEIs and the mechanism for private education providers to attain degree awarding powers and so effectively, to become Universities. Looking at these proposals in detail, and comparing them to the information provided in the Higher Education (Wales) Act 2015, it was immediately apparent that the very definition of what a University is, and the underlying structure of the HE sector in England and Wales were going to diverge considerably. This has only increased in the subsequent years.

I said at the time that ‘the danger is that English and Welsh higher education (and probably post-compulsory education as a whole) will begin to look very different. This is something that we will have to watch very carefully indeed’. This has, of course, happened and since the passing of the Tertiary Education and Research Bill (Wales) Act in September 2022 this divide has become even more embedded. This has not been an unmitigated disaster. Those of us who were in the Welsh sector were very pleased not to be subject to the Office for Students and to retain the QAA as the recognised quality body. However, the divergence in fees has undoubtedly had a very detrimental effect on the HEIs in Wales, especially when compared to their English compatriots.

The real question, however, is how far these divides, originating in the 2017 act are baked in. Is there an argument for trying to turn them around and work more towards bringing research and teaching back into a single framework, or to bring the various national HE sectors across the UK back into alignment? On the first question, I have no doubt that most of those in the sector would like to see more integration of teaching and research, especially at the level of governance at the national level. It has been said by several commentators that if the UK really wants to become a hi-tech superpower, then it is essential to bring these two functions back together and for higher education to be the responsibility of one government department.

The question of the re-alignment of the different national HE sectors, however, is not so clear. Simply bringing Wales and England back towards a common structure or common goals probably does not make sense without also considering Scotland and Northern Ireland. There is perhaps more commonality today among the Celtic nations, at least in values and approach, than any of them have with England. I would not necessarily want to see that disrupted. Likewise, the fees question is much larger than simply realigning England and Wales, although that might be a start. More significantly, however, at least from my limited perspective, is the development in Wales of a post-sixteen sector. This is a radical and positive move and there will undoubtedly be elements of what Wales is pioneering in this area that the other nations will want to learn from. If there is a Labour administration after the next election then I can see this gaining pace, and for this to be just one of a number of initiatives in Wales that might be transferred to England, so bringing a greater alignment once again, but in a very new and distinctive way.