The Politicisation of the Regulation of Higher Education in England
- Charles Clarke, Former Secretary of State for Education and Skills
- Paul Ashwin, Lancaster University
- CHAIR: Claire Callender, IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society and Birkbeck
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The Office for Students (OfS) is officially the independent regulator of higher education in England, which regulates higher education in the interests of all students. However, it has increasingly appeared to be regulating in the interests of the government by following the agenda set by government ministers. This is in stark contrast to the arms-length approach previously taken by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) which the OfS replaced. This new politicised approach to regulation raises questions about the independence of the OfS, the extent to which the OfS is regulating in the interests of students, its expertise to make judgements about educational quality and the impact of its approach on the health of the English higher education system. In this seminar, we will explore these questions from our different perspectives as a former Education Minister (Charles Clarke) and as a higher education researcher (Paul Ashwin).
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Charles Clarke was Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 1997 to 2010. He served as Education Minister from 1998 and then in the Home Office from 1999 to 2001. He then joined the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio and Labour Party Chair. From 2002 to 2004 he was Secretary of State for Education and Skills and then Home Secretary until 2006. Charles was previously Chief of Staff to Neil Kinnock, Leader of the Labour Opposition and a councillor in the London Borough of Hackney, chairing the housing committee. He now holds Visiting Professorships at Lancaster University and Kings College London and works with educational organisations internationally. He is a consultant on international education reform for Cambridge Assessment International and Cambridge University Press. In 2011 the Centre for European Reform published his ‘The EU and Migration: A Call for Action’. In 2014 he published ‘The Too Difficult Box’, an analysis of the problems which need to be overcome in promoting change, and in September 2015 two studies in political leadership, ‘British Labour Leaders’ and ‘British Conservative Leaders’; in 2015 he wrote, with Professor Linda Woodhead, “A New Settlement, Religion and Belief in Schools”; in 2020 he wrote, with Professor Ed Byrne, “The University Challenge”. Mr Clarke read mathematics and economics at Kings College Cambridge and was then President of the National Union of Students. Born in 1950, Mr Clarke married in 1984. He and his wife Carol have two sons. www.charlesclarke.org
Paul Ashwin is Professor of Higher Education and Head of the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University. He is Deputy Director of the Centre for Global Higher Education, an ESRC-funded research centre involving 10 international universities. Paul’s research is focused on the educational role of higher education. His book, ‘Transforming University Education: A Manifesto’ (2020), argues for a focus on the educational, rather than economic, purposes of university degrees in order to understand their transformational impact on students and societies. He is also the lead author on Reflective Teaching in Higher Education (2015, 2020) written by an international team to support the development of research-informed university teaching.
Claire Callender is Deputy Director of CGHE and is responsible for CGHE Project 4, ‘Graduate labour market and equity’ and CGHE Project 5, ‘Student loan debt and graduate decision-making’. Claire is Professor of Higher Education Studies at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society and at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research, writing and policy advice focus on student finances in higher education and related issues. Claire was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours 2017 for services to higher education.
