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This paper argues that theTimes Higherprovides a powerful tool for understanding the changing character of UK higher education (HE) and can usefully be seen as representative, and in some ways constitutive, of that changing character. Drawing on an analysis of a sample of stories from theTimes Higher, it documents the changing policy climate of UK HE from 1979 to 2010. It offers a broadly chronological account of themes that have emerged as prominent at different times during this period, pointing,inter alia, to fears about threats to the humanities, the rise of various forms of instrumentalism and the incorporation of HE institutions and agencies into a common mindset characterised by a preoccupation with marketing and corporate success. The last of these is embodied in the changing format of the newspaper itself and in its own activities as a key player in the HE sector, notably as a sponsor of university rankings and awards. Whilst being sensitive to countervailing tendencies, the authors suggest that the growing instrumentalisation of HE and related cultural shifts represent a changed ‘structure of feeling’ in UK HE. They conclude that the university rankings, awards and other image commodities that are a key part of this changed structure of feeling now play such a substantial role in the cultural life of universities that the norms of both rationality and professional ethics which tended to prevail in deliberations about university strategy 30 years ago may no longer be taken for granted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the past decade higher education policy in England has gradually switched from a stance of ‘government as purchaser’ to ‘government as informer’. During 2012 this policy stance has been intensified through new requirements for the advice provided by schools and the introduction of ‘Key Information Sets’ which are intended to ‘drive up quality’ through informed choice. This paper documents this policy shift and subjects it to critical scrutiny. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The contemporary English policy discourse in higher education of ‘Putting Students at the Heart of the System’ has led to an increasing use of managing by performance ‘smart-data’ reinforcing a consumer-led representation of students as ‘partners’ in the ‘business of learning’ within the academy. This approach disguises ongoing fundamental changes to academic work by mixing an increased ‘market-driven’ transparency with ‘accountability’ in ‘institutional and organization management’, utilizing so-called research-led or evidence-informed practice. The policy discourse masks and limits any critique of such data production, or more particularly its purposes and uses, while perhaps yet more significantly, generating an associated ‘modernizing’ rhetoric impacting multiple levels of decision-making throughout the HE institution. Evidence from previous research into school sector reform as data-based decision-making became mainstreamed is used to support our prognosis for the future. Drawing upon documentary analysis of KIS (Key Information Sets) and other publicly available data, this article presents a critique of widespread institutional reform that is rapidly becoming reliant upon what we call ‘data-smart policy’. In conclusion, a series of emerging issues are identified as part of managing the way forward in meeting data access requirements, ensuring student satisfaction and consumer protection, while preserving intellectual values associated with substantive scholarship and sound academic leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Formally the new public management model of governance was introduced into British higher education with the passage of the 1988 Education Reform Act, which abolished the existing University Grants Committee (UGC) and instigated the funding councils. This article explores the relationship between the state, the funding councils and the universities with respect to the contemporary development of the English system of higher education. The analysis is based on an exploration of four key policy issues: the quality assurance regime, the research assessment exercises, the widening participation agenda and the introduction of student fees. The goal is to explore how the quasi-state organisations-in particular the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)-have mediated the relationship between the state and the universities. The evidence suggests that the coupling of the state to the universities follows one of three tracks: compliance, resistance and seduction. The article explores what factors determine why one relationship (or combination of relationships) prevails, and explains patterns of change over time. The overall conclusion is that institutional interaction is very complex, and it is inaccurate-as is sometimes claimed-to view the funding council as little more than a compliant channel of government policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages, from the point of view of the higher education (HE) department and practitioner, with the realities, and explores the rhetoric, of the 'research-teaching nexus' with reference to the role of research and research skills, in the context of the student experience in higher education. The ultimate questions are: How serious should we be about responding to this rhetoric? Would it mean significantly changing the way we currently do things? Who decides such questions? What control do practitioners have? In so doing, the article focuses on examples of 'the student as researcher' as an educational goal relating to employability, the Extended Project that will result from 14-19 curriculum reform and the undergraduate dissertation. It also provides rule-of-thumb definitions for the technical language that is evolving in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on challenges facing British college students in the 2012 school year. It cites an increase in tuition fees and proposed reform of higher education as some of these challenges. It notes the problems posed by a tuition fee increase and the prospect of increased debt to the veterinary course. It points out the implication for universities of the reform of the student quota system.