Les Ebdon has been lined up to take over as head of Campaigning for Mainstream Universities
A new league table ranking universities on the educational value they add to their students between the start and finish of a course is needed in the UK, Les Ebdon, the new head of Campaigning for Mainstream Universities, said this week.
Professor Ebdon, vice-chancellor of Bedfordshire University, who replaces Michael Driscoll, vice-chancellor of Middlesex University, said that such a table would better recognise the contribution of the post-92 universities.
"One of my priorities will be to celebrate the success of modern universities in widening participation and applied research," Professor Ebdon said. "Schools have added-value tables and I'd like to see that developed for universities, showing how each institution contributes to the development of the individual."
Professor Ebdon said he wanted to see new universities receive a fairer share of the money available for teaching, recognising the extra cost of educating access students.
"Only a fraction of that money has been granted. We will be lobbying hard for that difference in cost to be recognised," he said. He wanted the CMU's contribution in applied research to be appreciated. "If we're going to be build a knowledge economy we need to be able to translate that pure research that is recognised and evaluated by the research assessment exercise into applied research that can be used in industry and by the community," he said.
Professor Ebdon takes over as head of the CMU in July.