Date : 11/02/2025 | Time : 7:00 pm - 8:15 pm |
‘Is the current system of higher education sustainable? Can universities or students afford it?’
This talk will be on Zoom. The talk is free but you do need to book a place to get access details. Please ignore references to payment. Scroll to the end of this page for the booking form.
Over our lifetimes, university attendance has grown from an opportunity for the privileged few to attracting more than a third of the population in recent years. At the same time the system has changed from a state funded to a student fee basis. Access is greater than ever. However, now our universities are facing a looming financial crisis: student fees have fallen steeply in real terms, high levels of debt servicing follow recent investments, research can be loss-making and the main pension scheme is underfunded. Some are increasingly reliant on overseas student income. Conversely, UK students themselves are faced with growing levels of debt and questions as to whether university is worth the cost. Is this a sustainable or desirable situation? What solutions are possible? What can we learn from other countries?
Three Harkness Fellows, Sir David Bell, Professor Karen O’Brien and Professor Sir Peter Scott will lead the first Harkness Centenary Discussion on challenges and possible solutions in the higher education sector.
Moderator
Sir David Bell KCB DL (HF 1993-94) is Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Sunderland. Previously, he was Vice-Chancellor at the University of Reading and, before that, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education and Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools. He is also Chair of Karbon Homes, a social housing provider.
Speakers
Professor Karen O’Brien (HF 1989-91) joined Durham University as its Vice-Chancellor and Warden in 2022. She originally studied English at University College, Oxford and gained a BA and then an Oxford D.Phil focused on the history of ideas in the eighteenth century. She held her Harkness Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989-90. Thereafter she held academic positions at Cambridge, Cardiff and Warwick. She was Vice-Principal (Education) at King’s College London and Head of Humanities at Oxford before moving into her current role.
Professor Sir Peter Scott (HF 1973-74) is emeritus Professor of Higher Education Studies at University College London. Previously he was Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University (1998-2010) and before that Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Education at the University of Leeds, and Editor of ‘The Times Higher Education Supplement’. From 2011 to 2015 he was Chair of the Council at the University of Gloucestershire, and from 2016 to 2022 the first Commissioner for Fair Access in Scotland. He is a member of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Academia Europaea.
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