First they came for the British Potato Council and I did not speak out. Then they came for the British Waterways Board and I did not speak out.
The British state has for so long relied on quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations (quangos for short) to do its policy and delivery work, that their proliferation –followed by their axing – has begun to feel routine. There’s even a common term for the process; we call it a “bonfire of quangos”, after Savonarola’s Bonfire of the Vanities.
And consecutive governments have delighted in throwing quangos into the flames. It’s a quick way of demonstrating cost savings and for heaven’s sake, did we really need a Potato Council? What we want is less red tape for potato farmers who have for too long been held back by dead hand of government bureaucracy. Or so the arguments went.
HE quangos under threat
But now higher education (HE) quangos are in the firing line, is it time for the sector to speak out?
HE quangos have proved relatively flame-retardant thus far. Since 1992, Hefce (the Higher Education Funding Council for England) has marched on while dozens of bodies in other sectors – most notably in HE’s poor relation, further education (FE) - were established and quickly disestablished.
For a sector that seeks stability above all things, the sheer consistency of Hefce has been reassuring. And the rest of the HE landscape has remained largely unchanged, except for the welcome arrivals of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator and the Office for Fair Access.
But it seems higher education quangos are now feeling the bonfire’s heat. As James Wilsdon reported, the partner agencies of the department for business, innovation and skills (mostly quangos in some form) are about to be slashed from 46 to 23.
And all eyes are on Hefce, which has served as a buffer between universities and the government for more than 20 years.
Ever since the bulk of teaching funding was taken out of its control and put into tuition fee loans in 2011, Hefce has looked vulnerable. It continues to hand out quality-related research funding, conduct the Research Excellence Framework (REF), and play an important regulatory role. But, having taken away most of its carrots as the primary funder of universities, the government gave it no new sticks to compensate.
Policy variations across the countries of the UK and the opening up of the HE market to new providers not under Hefce’s remit has further dented the powers of the one HE quango that used to rule them all.
Now it seems likely that research funding, and the mechanisms to distribute it, are to be “simplified” – which experts interpret as bringing all the seven research councils and Hefce’s research function together under one roof.
Coupled with this, a leaked BIS document talks about the need for the delivery of departmental activity to be “closer” to BIS HQ – or, as some have read it, in house. This could see Hefce lose its role in teaching funding, a move which would surely be the final nail in the coffin. And so senior figures are starting to plan for a world without Hefce.
Would Hefce be missed?
The sector would greet Hefce’s demise with mixed feelings. On the one hand, Hefce has been associated with controversial policies.On the other, it has been a discreet but effective conduit between universities and governments, protecting the sector from the hair-brained schemes of ministers. Of which there have been many.
As David Melville, former vice-chancellor of the University of Kent and head of the Further Education Funding Council (victim of a 2001 bonfire) tells me: “All funding council chief executives will describe occasions when they have moderated, or completely seen off, the wilder and more ill-informed intentions of government ministers or senior civil servants.”
It works the other way too, according to Melville. He says: “Ministers in the past have expressed to me the value politically of having an arms-length body to protect them, or to blame, when things go wrong.”
It’s not all about the politics though. After 23 years, Hefce has amassed a great deal of detailed expertise about English universities. It certainly has more knowledge than government ministers and Whitehall civil servants.
This has enabled the council to steward HE policy with the consent of universities, building consensus most of the time. It has also been well-positioned to do the policy leg-work: the underlying thinking and research that informs policy.
Hefce is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, commissioner of research in to higher education in the UK. Good research forms the bedrock of policymaking. We may not do nearly enough of it in comparison to other countries, but its absence would be deeply felt by policymakers and the academics who carry it out.
So should we fight for Hefce?
Yes and no. Change is certainly coming – digging in and resisting it entirely is not an option, nor is getting bogged down in issues of personality or territory.
If Hefce is going to depart the scene, then what we must protect are some critical principles that have underpinned its work. The largely successful dual support system of research funding should stay and none of the learning built up about how to conduct the REF should be lost.
The government would also be wise to hang on to staff who hold years of knowledge through working for Hefce, and bring them into the new arrangement.
Hefce takes responsibility for providing the evidence behind policy decisions and including experts and representatives in all decisions and at every level - things that have proven tricky for government departments to do successfully.
This is not special pleading for universities, or about protecting a quango. Universities are autonomous from government. So if power and functions over HE policy are to be centralised, there will need to be a quantum shift in the levels of engagement between universities and government – both ways - and a wholly new compact will need to emerge.
Maybe that would be healthy. But it would be a big experiment. And without Hefce around to keep the peace, the stakes of every single government decision will inevitably be raised.
Follow @markmleach on Twitter and on his website Wonkhe.com.
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