[Muanet] Another nail in the universities' coffin?

[Dion Giles]

[What happens to what's left of academic independence? -- Dion Giles]

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,902686,00.html

Multinationals to apply for university status
Donald MacLeod Tuesday February 25 2003
The Guardian

Two multinational companies are seeking to set up as universities in the UK
with powers to award their own degrees, according to the academic head of an
American university in London.

They join seven higher education colleges in England that are seeking
university status in the biggest expansion of the university sector for more
than a decade, as the government pushes for half of young people to enter
higher education.

Professor Geoffrey Alderman, vice-president of academic affairs at the
American InterContinental University in London, said the companies - which
he declined to name - were interested in recruiting thousands of
employee/students to study for degrees.

The higher education watchdog, the quality assurance agency, which advises
ministers on granting degree-awarding powers and university status, said it
had not received formal expressions of interest, although one company
approached it informally more than a year ago.

Normally an institution would engage in fairly lengthy discussions with
agency officials before making a formal application to the Department for
Education and Skills. The agency would then report on whether an institution
meets its standards for awarding degrees - typically over the course of an
academic year - and advise ministers accordingly. University status is
granted by the privy council.

Universities in the UK and the rest of Europe have traditionally been
defined as having powers to award their own research degrees, but last
month's white paper proposes to relax that condition and allow institutions
that award their own taught degrees - bachelors and masters - to become
universities.

This has speeded up the rush by a number of higher education colleges to
seek university status and would open the door to multinational companies
and American for-profit institutions to enter the British market.

Next week, the London Institute, which comprises five art and design
colleges, will launch an application for university status in an attempt to
become an "Imperial for the arts". But Bolton Institute, turned down on QAA
advice at a time when it was taking a hard line on university status under
its previous chief executive John Randall, is first in the queue with a
second application under consideration.

Five others, Bath Spa University College, Buckinghamshire Chilterns
University College, Canterbury Christ Church University College, University
College Northampton and University College Worcester already have taught
degree awarding powers and are all poised to apply. All say that becoming
universities would help to attract student applications and forge links with
business.

Professor Alderman, formerly head of quality assurance at Middlesex
University, said the advantage for a company in being able to award its own
degrees was that it would get better quality students earlier. For students
there would be the attraction of getting paid while they were trained on the
job. They would also do residential courses and get a degree related to
their career.

He added: "These two private corporations have very extensive in-house
training programmes, which in one case at the moment are delivered in
collaboration with a variety of British and overseas universities. The
multinational concerned is saying to itself 'why can't we deliver this
ourselves and get degree awarding powers?'"

AIU London, part of a profit-making company with campuses in the US, London
and Dubai, awards both American and British (Open University) degrees. It
has volunteered to be audited by the QAA. In the US there is a thriving
for-profit higher education sector, although to be accredited such
universities must have boards of governors independent of the corporation
that owns them.

Peter Williams, chief executive of the QAA, said the white paper made it
clear the government intended to make it possible for organisations that
were not traditional campus-based or publicly-funded institutions to gain
degree-awarding powers. "The white paper wants to look at ways in which the
market might be opened up for degree awarding powers," he said.

With proper safeguards, companies could be considered as degree-awarding
bodies if they applied to the DfES, he said. The agency would then
investigate whether their in-house programmes were equivalent to a UK
degree. "There are a large number of companies in the IT industry which are
offering the industry standard credentials to a very high standard indeed.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if they were to come along and say 'we are
offering these high level credentials - are they equivalent to a degree?'"

However IT companies would be too narrowly focused to qualify for university
status, added Mr Williams.