Universities need to rely more on high quality research for funding - Yorkshire Post Letters

Last Saturday’s YP carried several articles concerning issues in funding for higher education.

However the most telling comments came from the Don Valley MP, Nick Fletcher, in reality we have too many Universities.

The current funding model has its merits where significant funding is given for research excellence, but sadly many universities and particularly the newer universities do not have a research culture that would enable them to compete with those that do, and so they struggle to manage on the funding provided from undergraduate fees.

It is entirely wrong that fees from foreign students have to be used to subsidise our own and such dependance has to be addressed.

What none of the correspondents do not seem to have grasped is the issue that the potential funding from the Research Excellence Framework (REF) could go a long way to helping balancing the books.

What many Vice Chancellors have to accept is that high quality research cannot be fitted round undergraduate teaching timetables. The best research comes from departments where senior academic staff do not have an undergraduate teaching commitment, but have a significant post graduate teaching commitment, but more importantly have the time to write successful grant applications to research funders.

With the right structure lectures can be part of full-time research teams and make a recognisable contribution to the REF.

I accept that in the current climate it would be very difficult for many universities to free up senior academics from undergraduate teaching to become full time researchers who would then hopefully bring in external research funding in areas that full time teaching staff could contribute to.

Looking at the league table, this is what successful universities do and as long as the current funding model persists and from my 40 years in academic research it is the only way forward.