Fifty higher education providers at risk of exiting market in England, MPs told | Jan Rasmus Böhnke

Three things I found quite interesting to listen to about the crisis at the University of Dundee that illustrate the various crises in the UK #HigherEducation sector well and could therefore also be interesting to others. The session of the “Education, Children and Young People Committee” of the #ScottishParliament with Professor Nigel Seaton, Interim Principal and Vice-Chancellor and Lee Hamill, Interim Finance Director (University of Dundee) covered a wide range of concrete challenges and topics in university management.** One example: “There is always cross-subsidy involved in research activities, and there is a bigger cross-subsidy for activities that are more expensive, including science and engineering activities. All British universities lose money on research—it is a structural question. We recover about 69 per cent of the cost of doing research across the university, which is a very normal figure for a university.” https://lnkd.in/eDgxJQUb Full session available here, starting at 10:08am, https://lnkd.in/em_Vbk3Z #ParlamaidNaHAlba And the “Chair of Court election hustings” have been recorded and published here: https://lnkd.in/eEMNBYyD The candidates’ responses give interesting perspectives, in part from other sectors, on the problems of #HEI and Dundee in particular. Once again just one quote to whet the appetite, by Esther Roberton (minutes ago confirmed as the new Chair of UoD Court) on pay levels for University leadership in the UK: “When I discovered what principals earn, I was taken aback. […] I had a Chief Exec running a health board with nearly £2bn of a budget, 22.5 thousand staff, and he earned half of what some of our University Principals earn.” (but she acknowledged that pay offered still had an influence on whom one would be able to recruit) [Due to word count limits, third point added in the first comment 👇 ] I’d say “Enjoy!”, but I am not so sure * Don’t forget The Guardian’s headline “Fifty higher education providers at risk of exiting market in England, MPs told” https://lnkd.in/eFXxEKjm ** Fun quote for my German colleagues: “To people who have not worked in universities, this might seem like an odd thing to say, but it takes nearly a year to appoint a university principal. It is a complex process that involves senate and court” Well, that is still fast. One can be happy if after a year a professor is appointed…