University of York: Private Property

This government’s education reforms have been fast and comprehensive, leaving any coherent challenge from those who oppose the reforms non-existent – this is especially surprising when one would have thought intellectual force from this sector should not be hard to muster. Nevertheless, we have to move forward from the position we are in and the next big idea from the universities Minister David Willets could be more ‘for-profit’ universities.

Now with any step towards privatisation, the die-hard socialists will go against the free market fundamentalists. Many argue that there are certainly examples of where privatisation failing in terms of value for money and serving the public – the railways and the energy companies. But this is beside the point, what would greater privatisation at the University of York look like? And more importantly what would it do to student satisfaction, degree quality and the university experience as a whole.

Firstly, I think an immediate change would be the dissolving of the college system – how can anyone justify that system in a business? It is certainly inefficient . A centralised system would get rid of the high salaries of provosts and administrators and help streamline the business. This may decrease student satisfaction and the student experience as the college support systems that are so accessible and help students everyday would disappear, and we would be left with a less personal centralised system.

Another change would undoubtedly be a rise in fees; it would have to happen unless safe guards were put in place. Evidence in the US has shown private universities have to charge more than public institutions as they do not get as much state support. Also, more evidence has shown that private for-profit institutions also spend significant amounts on marketing and recruiting rather than on current students.

If York turned to be a for-profit university personal progress meetings with our supervisors would come under threat, perhaps we would not have supervisors at all? It would be too expensive, especially when academics’ time would be stretched enough as it is. And it would not be seen as efficient. By the same logic, small groups in seminars would have to go and we would probably revert to large groups or concentrate more on online learning as universities in the US have been shown to prefer.

On top of this, I think university expansion would continue as more student numbers would become essential to profit creation. Nonetheless, there would be a continued if not greater neglect of current student accommodation (if it could get worse). This really is not desirable.

Another point that is rarely brought up in this debate is that of scientific research. It should not be news to most of you that big companies pay lots of money to university departments to research new technologies. Though it is rarely acknowledged by those who seem to think all innovation in technology comes from the private sector, this is just not true. In many cases these companies cannot justify using the resources to set up a R&D department and even if they can, it is not going to be able to go into as much depth as a publically funded university, because there is a lack of certainty.

Maybe this is quite a bleak prediction? Perhaps, but the facts remain if we want a university system that delivers a good quality of education, support and experience to students you cannot start dabbling in profit making universities they will not deliver these things. The private sector would lose out as well because the university system does so much to innovative technology. Something I do not believe a for-profit uni could justify – they would only be able to teach not research. It is clear to me that this is not what we need from a university system. Business models are good from some things but not for education.