Calls for the reintegration of university teaching and research into a single Westminster government department have received the backing of a former permanent secretary at the Department for Education.
Sir David Bell, vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland, said the split in responsibility for teaching and research into different departments since 2016 was causing harm to the sector.
The relationship between teaching and research was the subject of a Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) paper by Nicola Dandridge, professor of practice in higher education policy at the University of Bristol, earlier this year.
The paper said that growing separation between the two pillars was happening with little or no attention being paid to the downsides and trade-offs in terms of university practices and government policy development.
