There was certainly a plan. Some said it was scrawled on the back of a beer mat or a cigarette packet. It was more likely to have figured on a blackboard in Sanctuary Buildings, though that could have been in words, a chart or a formula. A public version of it – the White Paper The Future of Higher Education – was published in January 2003 and led to the Higher Education Act (2004).1 Neither of these, though, captured the real plan being discussed around the kitchens of Northavon House and Polaris House, which was a sector modelled on the best state higher education systems in the USA.2
Every region would have a flagship research university, to be achieved through mergers. Other universities would focus on applied research and professionally-oriented teaching, developing ‘third stream’ engagement as their first mission. Through joint ventures and college networks, universities would open in counties and towns without provision. There would be new medical schools and Foundation Degree qualifications designed around the needs of employers across the country. The government would support universities to recruit an extra 50,000 international students by 2005.
The Government could broker this through the Secretary of State for Education’s relationships with the most influential higher education leaders. The Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council in England (HEFCE) had served as a vice-chancellor, President of Universities UK and Chief Executive of the Economic and Social Research Council. When he left HEFCE in 2006 for a further vice-chancellor position, he was replaced by another vice-chancellor who had served with the Research Councils.3 By that time, the senior civil servant responsible for higher education was also a former vice-chancellor. Due to the Labour Party’s control of the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, as well as central government in Westminster, and the commonality of approaches between the English, Welsh and Scottish Funding Councils, there could be a coherent policy UK-wide.
