The impact of universities on the UK & East Midlands economies

A big impact indeed This Universities UK report from earlier in the year on the impact of universities on the UK economy really is a very interesting piece of work which covers the sector's increasing impact in terms of output, contribution to GDP, job creation, and overseas investment. It also looks at the knock-on effects …

A campus facilities arms race?

It's all about the aquatics apparently I've posted before about the growth of luxury student accommodation in the US. Now the Education Advisory Board has a report on what it says amounts to a recreation facilities arms race on US campuses: Auburn University has a 45-person paw-print shaped hot tub, Pensacola Christian College has a …

Betting the farm

A very big gamble The Chronicle of Higher Education has an extraordinary piece about how one investment manager gambled away $13.1 Million of her university’s money: Over a series of three contracts, Ms. Prizevoits signed over more than $8-million of the 96-year-old university’s money in 2008 to a Florida-based company called Betts and Gambles Global …

Capital spend spend spend

Changing patterns of capital spending in universities   HESA recently released details of HEIs' capital spend in 2012-13 showing the total spend on buildings and equipment and the sources of the funds used:   Times Higher Education has a brief piece on this and notes that, unsurprisingly, as external funding for capital expenditure has declined, …

It’s not about the money: real international impact

Genuinely international- Going Global 2014 Universities have had an international outlook since the beginning. Whilst some aspects of internationalisation have moved on since the middle ages some principles remain clear. Including the need to look beyond income generation as a motive. As part of Going Global 2014, the British Council's international HE conference, I'm involved …

The impact of universities on the UK economy

A big impact indeed This new Universities UK report on the impact of universities on the UK economy really is a very interesting piece of work which covers the sector's increasing impact in terms of output, contribution to GDP, job creation, and overseas investment. It also looks at the knock-on effects of expenditure by universities, …

Money, Money, Money

HE Income and Expenditure 2012/13 Perhaps not the most exciting publication of the year to date but nevertheless some interesting information in the new Higher Education Statistics Agency report on Income and Expenditure of HE institutions. HE Finance Plus 2012/13 shows that the total income of higher education institutions (HEIs) in 2012/13 was £29.1 billion. …

The 2014 Grant letter: another epistolary triumph

And the wait was finally over The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has written to HEFCE with the Department's annual message on funding and helpful bag of instructions. As excitement in the sector reached near fever pitch, the contents were being live-tweeted by @TimesHigherEd while everyone else waited to get hold of …

The Imperfect University: Sectoral change since Robbins and into the future

All change please! Sectoral change since Robbins and into the future Rewriting Robbins? The very thought I recently agreed to give a presentation on this theme at an event entitled “Rewriting Robbins” by those lovely people at SGP Martineau. You can find the full details of the event here  and my rather fetching but nevertheless …

Show and Tell: The Office of Fair Trading is Looking at Universities (again)

And they are looking for a lot of information. Back in October 2013 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) issued a call for information on the undergraduate part of the higher education sector in England. This follows the earlier look (outcome awaited) at terms and conditions in relation to student debts and universities' practices in …

Shared Services in the USA

It's probably not quite what they were hoping for. Inside Higher Ed reports on a bold plan at the University of Michigan to address shared services within the institution. The idea must have seemed such a good one at the time - centralise large parts of departmental administration into a single place in order to …

Betting the farm. On a stadium.

How one university is going for broke with a new stadium. Inside Higher Ed has an interesting story about Colorado State University's plan to solve all of its problems with a new stadium. The University is, in common with many other public institutions in the US, in a difficult financial position. But the response at …

Higher education funding letters: another bundle of joy

On government HE funding letters The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has written to HEFCE with the Department's annual message on funding and helpful bag of instructions. The letter sets out Government funding and priorities for HEFCE and for higher education for the second year of the new financial arrangements for higher …

The Imperfect University: First for the chop

The Imperfect University: Some people really don't think much of administrators Last year I wrote a piece for Times Higher Education on the problem with the term “back office” and the often casual, unthinking use of it in order to identify a large group of staff who play a key role in the effective running …

Austerity in the USA

Savings needed at US Universities University World News. carries a piece by William Patrick Leonard, vice dean of SolBridge International School of Business in Daejeon, Republic of Korea, suggesting that US Higher education institutions need to rein in their costs. The traditional approaches to meeting financial shortfalls, raising tuition fees or increasing student numbers, are, …