We have drifted into a university system in which economic growth is valued over everything else. In many universities, I would argue that this has overtaken the focus on achieving a positive impact on society. This marketized system risks becoming further entrenched if the Augar review of post-18 education is implemented, particularly through graduate salaries, to measure a university’s success. It’s been suggested that we overhaul the university system entirely to remedy this, but that’s not the only solution. Universities are autonomous institutions in which academic freedom is the fundamental principle. In today’s world, in which half the nation attends a university, it is also clear that they carry a civic responsibility to engage with society – yet it’s hard to argue that neither is the case in the UK anymore.
Universities often have to mimic business practices to survive, and many spend millions to attract fee-paying students. Universities are forced to compete with each other to offer courses that provide “value for money.” The educational sector is important when Britain faces pressing social problems, including growing inequality. The Augar recommendations problem is that they are a missed opportunity to provide a clear vision for how universities could help confront societal challenges.
A new sector-wide strategic agenda focused on social impact could find genuine cross-party endorsement, unlike the divisive issue of tuition fees. But how would it work in practice? The government could introduce a new social impact survey of universities’ work in this area, perhaps by integrating it into an existing initiative that assesses their impact, such as the research excellence framework. This would measure teaching, research, and other student and staff projects. Two key measures would be the extent to which university projects engage with the public and how successfully they focus on social challenges in the local area. The government could consider funding universities that perform well to enable them to expand their work.
This may sound costly and impractical, but some universities already do it. King’s College London, for example, is surveying students and the public to identify its social impact. The survey uses the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a benchmark. One of the university’s areas is currently achieving the most in addressing children’s air quality exposure. The SDGs are 17 global policy aims adopted at a United Nations summit in 2015, aiming to solve the world’s biggest problems by 2030 and provide a useful framework for a government-backed national survey scheme.
They are already transforming the way universities operate elsewhere. In Japan, Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of Infectious Diseases uses SDG3 – the goal of good health and well-being – to guide its research. Meanwhile, in Ghana, All Nations University College’s work on empowering women through education is based on SDG5 on gender equality. No matter the assessment methodology, the first step is to get social impact on the UK’s agenda. As Geoff Mulgan, chief executive at innovation agency Nesta, has pointed out, universities can benefit from being more “challenge-driven” and focused on real-life problems in their curriculum.
A century ago, when universities were only for a select few, it did not matter whether they prioritized scholarly freedom or benefited broader society. Now that they split the country into two camps, regarding who goes and who doesn’t, the community has a stake in the matter. With the next general election looming, it’s time the public demanded universities focus more on social impact. Only then will party leaders and vice-chancellors have to sit up and take note. Vincent Straub is a research assistant at King’s College, London.
