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If you missed the announcement of a HE Restructuring Regime (HERR) when you were exhausted in July #AcademicTwitter - here's a quick catch up thread.
Appointments: higher education restructuring regime (HERR) advisory board - http://GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-higher-education-restructuring-regime-herr-advisory-board/appointments-higher-education-restructuring-regime-herr-advisory-board
Appointments: higher education restructuring regime (HERR) advisory board - http://GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-higher-education-restructuring-regime-herr-advisory-board/appointments-higher-education-restructuring-regime-herr-advisory-board
TL:DR notice most board members seem to have financial backgrounds, not education.
The HERR presented itself as a package of financial support for universities hit by loss of income streams during Covid.
But that comes with strings and levers. The government wants unis to retool the curriculum to address economic priorities. We seem to have been here before.. for a long time.
It looks as if the proposals of the Regime stand in conflict with the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 which enshrines the protection of university autonomy. But that's why the govt fought hard to exclude protection of uni autonomy in HERA 2017.
Has university autonomy been declared null and void by one sole government edict? How soon before the UK emulates other authoritarian governments, such as Hungary or Brazil, in deciding to outlaw gender studies or other perceived left-wing critical areas?
Here's what HERR says about student union activities: "The funding of student unions should be proportionate and focused on serving the needs of the wider student population rather than subsidising niche activism and campaigns." Scared yet ?
This is an edict beyond parliamentary scrutiny, and one wonders what else it would take for Higher Education Minister, Michelle Donelan (whose name does not appear on the document), to be accused of ministerial overreach.
How can the minister for higher education decide unilaterally and a priori that all activism should be prohibited? This is not conservatism; it is something more sinister entirely.
We have a team of financiers circling our unis, licensed to look for political infringements of these edicts and wield the financial cudgels. https://academicirregularities.wordpress.com/2020/08/09/from-regulation-to-regime-are-we-seeing-a-government-takeover-of-universities/
