You may have heard the cry as it pealed across the country on April 1st, you may have thought it an April Fool, but this was no joke! As of April 2018, HEFCE is indeed no more and responsibility for higher education (HE) in England now belongs to the newly formed Office for Students and Research England. So what does this mean for you and for the HE sector in general? The research Kaleidoscope will explain all below.
Following considerable debate and a two year passage through the Houses of Parliament, the HE & Research Act was passed in 2017 and established two new organisations: the Office of Students and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a new umbrella organisation bringing together the 7 research councils (that previously made up RCUK), Innovate UK and Research England (RE); with RE taking on the Research and Knowledge Exchange functions of HEFCE.
Research England: http://re.ukri.org/
Research England has responsibility for coordinating the REF, along with equivalent organisations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (HEFCW, SFC and the DftE, respectively). It will also oversee distribution of QR funds in England, administer a variety of other funding sources, such as the Higher Education Innovation fund (or the new Excellence in England fund), oversee data collection and analysis (e.g. the HE-BCI survey), and provide strategic support to the HE sector through engagement with HEIs, advice, policy development and evaluation of the policy landscape on the sector. In many ways, it will be business as usual in terms of the support offered and it will also be delivered by many familiar faces from HEFCE (Stephen Hill for example).
A question to ask then, is why make such a fundamental change? Well one reason was to facilitate coordination and collaboration across all the research councils, Innovate UK and relevant functions of HEFCE and facilitate complementarity in their individual strategic missions and approaches (such as through aligning HEIF with the Industrial Strategy). The other was to ensure that the HE sector had a strong voice in this new research environment.
UK Research and Innovation: https://www.ukri.org/
So what of UKRI? Well, its mission is to be an outstanding research and innovation agency, to push the frontier of human knowledge and deliver both economic and societal impact. It will do this through using increased funding (over 4 Billion extra has been allocated to UKRI up to 2021) and bringing together the strengths and expertise of the 7 established Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England. It will provide back-end support for Councils and oversee cross-cutting initiatives, such as the GCRF, but disciplinary decisions about research support will be made at the Council Level (the Haldane Principle having been enshrined in the HE & Research Act). UKRI will also have responsibility for advising the government on the appropriate balance in the dual-support system for supporting research. This will, no doubt, be a challenging role at times, as UKRI will need to not only consider its overall mission but also the needs of the National verses the English HE Sector, as well as ensuring a fair distribution between Competitive and Quality Related research funding streams, whilst being mindful of the funding environment in the devolved nations – quite the balancing act!
New Regulatory Environment for HE Sector and Research Funding in England and UK
Office for Students: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/
The Office of Students (OfS) takes on the remainder of HEFCE’s functions in its role as regulator for HE in England. As the name suggests its focus is on regulating the sector in order to protect student interests and it will do this through ensuring quality in provision, access, value for money & choice in the HE sector. Its first big tasks have been to collect a register of current and new HE providers and carry forward the next iteration of the TEF. It will also regulate degree awarding powers and their quality (via an independent body – currently the QAA), widening participation and completion rates, growing the number and type of HE providers and courses offered, data collection & metrics and, as mentioned, the TEF. More controversially it will also have responsibility for free speech, Prevent duty and in some cases senior management wages; it will need to do all this whilst respecting academic freedom and the autonomy of HEIs, both of which were enshrined in the HE & Research Act 2017.
https://wonkhe.com/blogs/a-beginners-guide-to-the-office-for-students/
So overall, what does this mean for the HE sector and the day to day life in the University?
Well, whilst at first glance it appears that the regulation and support of HE teaching and research will be separated, both OfS and UKRI will work together on some elements of regulation (as these slides by David Sweeny, current chair of RE, highlight), with collaboration coordinated by Research England:
- Skills
- Knowledge Exchange
- Infrastructure
- Financial sustainability
- Accountability
- Evidence gathering and metrics
- Coordination between TEF & REF
REF and TEF are also not going anywhere (some thoughts here on why we should love the REF!) and the new kid on the HE evaluation block – KEF – is also continuing to be consulted on and developed, by UKRI and Research England. New funding and updated budgets are coming on stream, and in the future we may see more harmonisation with the Industrial Strategy and expansion of cross-disciplinary initiatives, such as GCRF.
It remains to be seen how the new organisations will deal with the some of the main uncertainties facing the HE sector currently, such as Brexit, student recruitment etc., and there have been some teething troubles already, for example with appointments to the OfS board, but overall, there is a sense of (very) cautious optimism, from sector, around the changes. UKRI chair, Sir Mark Walport, will be producing UKRI’s strategy in May, so we should get a sense then of the direction of travel. In the meantime it’s a case of watch this space!
For those missing HEFCE, the website will still be available till September 2018 and you can keep up to date with all things REF here: http://www.ref.ac.uk/