‘We should have fought for a graduate tax,’ says former v-c

University leaders should have taken a stronger stance against reforms made over a decade ago that created the current funding system and have let a small number of institutions prosper at the expense of the wider sector, according to a former vice-chancellor.

Rama Thirunamachandran recently stepped down from the top job at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) after 13 years in charge – one of the longest tenures at any one UK institution by a vice-chancellor.

“I think it’s the people who make the institutions, but I think it’s the right time for me and the right time probably for the institution to also have new leadership,” he told Times Higher Education.

“I think there’s always a balance between staying in roles long enough to make a difference and staying too long, and I hope I’ve got that balance just about right.”

Thirunamachandran said the role of vice-chancellor has also grown significantly more difficult in recent years – going from one that used to allow “moments to breathe” to one with an average tenure of under five years.

“Running universities is hard work. It’s probably going to be harder and harder for somebody to do [13] years because I think it is almost 24/7 and if you’re committed to it, which I have been from day one…it’s full on.”

The expert in geography and natural sciences also said vice-chancellors have become much more reluctant to speak out on public issues like climate change or the war in the Middle East.

“Very few now are willing to engage in public discourse on matters which affect society more broadly, because they could take a position which doesn’t quite sit well with the government and that immediately becomes an issue.

“I wouldn’t want to say anything if it risks bringing some form of additional scrutiny on my institution, and that’s not a good place for us to be in.”

Thirunamachandran’s tenure, which spanned 11 secretaries of state and six different prime ministers, coincided with a period of great change in the sector – one of the biggest of which is the regulatory pressures that universities are now under.

The former director of research, innovation and skills for 10 years at the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the precursor to the Office for Students (OfS), said the current regulator has taken quite a long time “to bed into their role”, often appearing as “an arm of government as opposed to being an independent regulator”.

“The OfS, perhaps in trying to distinguish themselves and put clear blue water [between] a predecessor body, they probably took a stance when they were established which was sort of 1970s utilities regulation rather than modern regulation.”

But Thirunamachandran said the appointment of Edward Peck as chair and, more recently, of two new chief executives, shows an understanding that there needs to be greater partnership between the regulator and higher education providers.

The other biggest difference is how students increasingly see themselves as consumers because they are contributing almost all the cost of their higher education, he said.

“I think overall marketisation has probably gone too far, which is fundamentally distorting some of the values around higher education.

“I still very much believe in the notion of higher education being more than what you learn in the classroom – it is about developing the whole person, it is about transforming lives.

“In the rather marketised world now, both the student and some institutions…see it now much more as a commercial transaction.”

He said the biggest policy mistakes of the era, which had a “corrosive impact” on the sector, were the tripling of the fees in 2012, combined with the abolishment of student number controls.

“[That] allowed the market to let rip [and] has meant that a small proportion of institutions have got stronger, bigger, richer at the expense of the rest of the system.

“If there isn’t a rethink, in effect, the universities like mine…whose mission is all about widening access, will simply not be able to carry on in the medium to long term.”

Thirunamachandran said university leaders felt pressured into accepting these reforms, with the government warning that universities would face a 40 per cent funding cut if not.

“Universities should have fought harder, and I put my hand up and I include myself in this…to say ‘no, it’s not a 40 per cent cut or tripling of the fees’ and putting all the burden on the future graduate; there’s got to be a balance somewhere.”

Looking back, he said the sector should have advocated for a graduate tax, but did not because it was less of a guarantee of funding.

“We couldn’t be certain that the money collected as graduate tax would come in its entirety back to the university system. The chancellor may choose to prioritise other things, and I think the attractiveness to universities was the money was coming directly.

“I think there was a significant element of self-interest, which I include myself in, and I think I now look back 10 years on and somewhat regret having seen the outworkings of this fee loan system and the marketisation-let-rip scenario.”

As a result, he said the broken funding model is distorting behaviours: “It’s not working for the students, for future graduates, it’s not working for universities because half the universities are in deficit, it doesn’t work for families. What should be a win-win has become a sort of lose-lose.

“The big question for me is whether politicians of any party have got the courage to stop and actually stand back and say ‘what’s the purpose of higher education?’”

On top of Brexit, the pandemic, and war in Europe and the Middle East, CCCU also recently faced a meningitis outbreak in the local area in which two students died, one of whom attended the nearby University of Kent and the other was a sixth-former.

Thirunamachandran said it was tragic that two young people lost their lives but was critical of health secretary Wes Streeting for calling the outbreak “unprecedented” – given the country has recently gone through the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I think politicians and public health officials were not careful in the language which they used to communicate, which turned it into a bit of a media circus rather than something which was much more contained and needed to be managed locally.”

“Words like unprecedented really put fear amongst staff and students in all the universities in Canterbury, which was, I think, entirely unnecessary and could have been avoided.”

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com