Let UK universities do what they do best – teaching and research

Let UK universities do what they do best – teaching and research


The UK’s universities can justifiably claim an outstanding international reputation, generating multiple direct and indirect benefits for society, and underpinning our core professions through training and education. Yet these attributes are being undermined and degraded from within and without, with innovation, creativity, originality and critical thought, as well as notions of social justice, being threatened by forces of marketisation demanding “competitiveness” and “efficiency” in teaching and research. This generates continuous pressures to standardise, conform, obey and duplicate in order to be “transparent” to measurement.


Government regulations are escalating pressures on academics, insisting they function as 'small businesses'

Government regulations and managerial micro-management are escalating pressures on academics, insisting they function as “small businesses” covering their own costs or generating profits. Highly paid university managers (and even more highly paid “management consultants”) are driving these processes, with little regard for, or understanding of, the teaching and research process in higher education. Yet these outdated models of “competitiveness” and “efficiency” have long since been rejected not only by those who believe in quality education as a force for social change but also by progressive business thinking worldwide. This deprofessionalisation and micro-management of academics is relentlessly eroding their ability to teach and conduct research effectively and appropriately. A compliant, demoralised and deprofessionalised workforce is necessarily underproductive, and cannot innovate.


Unprecedented levels of anxiety and stress among both academic and academic-related staff and students abound, with “obedient” students expecting, and even demanding, hoop-jumping, box-ticking and bean-counting, often terrified by anything new, different, or difficult. Managerial surveys then “measure” their consumer “satisfaction” – such are the low ambitions of today’s universities, locked into a conservative status quo mentality; for what is there left to learn, when you already know it in order to demand it?

We call upon parliament’s newly elected education committee to conduct an urgent investigation into these grave matters.

Professor Karin Lesnik-Oberstein University of Reading
Professor Erica Burman University of Manchester
Professor Ian Parker University of Leicester
Dr Shaun Grech The Critical Institute
Dr Richard House The Critical Institute
Peter Abbs Professor emeritus, University of Sussex
Patrick Ainley Professor of training and education, University of Greenwich
Priscilla Alderson Professor emerita of childhood studies, UCL Institute of Education
Dennis Atkinson Professor emeritus Goldsmiths University of London
Professor Jim Aulich Manchester Metropolitan University; Manchester School of Art
James Avis Professor of PCET, School of Education, University of Huddersfield
Stephen Ball Karl Mannheim Professor of sociology of education, Institute of Education/UCL
Bernard Barker Emeritus professor of education, University of Leicester
Emeritus Professor Michael Bassey Nottingham Trent University
Professor Ann-Marie Bathmaker University of Birmingham
Tina Beattie Professor of Catholic studies, University of Roehampton London
Lori Beckett Professor of teacher education, Leeds Beckett University
Professor Andrew Bennett Department of English, University of Bristol
Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya Department of sociology, University of East London
Andreas Bieler Professor of political economy, University of Nottingham
Professor Michael Billig Loughborough University
Professor David Brauner Department of English literature, University of Reading
Marie Breen-Smyth Professor of international politics, University of Surrey
Roger Brown Emeritus Professor of higher education policy, Liverpool Hope University
Vanessa Burholt Professor of gerontology, Swansea University
Professor Hugh Burkhardt University of Nottingham and UC Berkeley
Professor Diana Burton Faculty of education health & wellbeing University of Wolverhampton
Professor Mark Burton Manchester Metropolitan University
Professor Peter Buse Head, School of performance and screen studies, Kingston University
Professor Catherine Casey University of Leicester
Clive Coen Professor of neuroscience, King’s College London; Chair, Rationalist Association
Professor Helen Colley
Margaret Cox Emerita professor of information technology in education, King’s College London
Professor Gill Crozier University of Roehampton
Anne Douglas Research professor Grays School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen
Professor Windy Dryden
Professor Richard Dyer King’s College London and St Andrews University
Kathryn Ecclestone Professor of education, University of Sheffield
Emeritus Professor Tony Edwards
John Elliott Emeritus professor of education, University of East Anglia
Keri Facer Professor of educational and social futures, University of Bristol
Colin Feltham Emeritus professor, Sheffield Hallam University
Michael Fielding Emeritus professor of education, University College London Institute of Education
Professor Des Freedman Department of media and communications, Goldsmiths University of London
Emeritus Professor Frank Furedi University of Kent
John Furlong Emeritus professor of education, University of Oxford
Michael Gold Professor of comparative employment relations Royal Holloway University of London
Harvey Goldstein Professor of social statistics, University of Bristol
Daniel Goodley Professor of disability studies and education, University of Sheffield
Ivor Goodson Professor of learning theory, University of Brighton
Professor Brendan Gough School of social psychological & communication sciences, Leeds Beckett University
David E Gray Professor of leadership and organisational behaviour, University of Greenwich
Professor Lucy Green UCL Institute of Education, London
Professor Susan Greenfield
Professor Emeritus Carol Hall University of Nottingham
Professor Richard Hatcher Birmingham City University
Dave Hill Research professor in education, Anglia Ruskin University
Professor John Holford Robert Peers chair in adult education, University of Nottingham
Wendy Hollway Emeritus professor of psychology
Richard Hyman Emeritus professor of industrial relations
Professor Carol Jones Law school, University of Wolverhampton
Rita Jordan Emeritus professor in autism studies, University of Birmingham
Stephen Joseph Professor, School of education, University of Nottingham
Professor Carolyn Kagan
Terence Karran Professor of higher education policy
Celia Kitzinger Professor of conversation analysis in sociology, University of York
Dr Rebecca Lawthom Professor of community psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University
Marilyn Leask Professor of educational knowledge management, University of Bedfordshire
Professor Simon Lilley Head, University of Leicester’s school of management
Professor Ruth Lister
Professor Ruth Lupton University of Manchester
Morag McDermont Professor of socio-legal studies, University of Bristol
Professor Simon McGrath School of education, University of Nottingham
Meg Maguire Professor of sociology of education, King’s College London
Professor Tim May Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures, University of Salford
Professor Martin Milton Regents University London
Professor Louise Morley Director, Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER), University of Sussex
Professor Emeritus Janet Moyles Early years and play consultant
Mike Neary Professor of sociology, University of Lincoln
Dany Nobus Professor of psychoanalytic psychology, Brunel University London
Mario Novelli Professor of education and social work, University of Sussex
Ozlem Onaran Professor of workforce and economic development policy, University of Greenwich
Professor Charles Oppenheim
Marilyn Osborn Emeritus professor of education, University of Bristol
Professor Jayne Osgood Centre for Education Research & Scholarship (CERS), Middlesex University
Martin Parker Professor of culture and organization, School of management, University of Leicester
Professor Nigel Parton Applied childhood studies, University of Huddersfield
Professor Ann Phoenix UCL Institute of Education
Professor David Pilgrim University of Liverpool
Professor Heather Piper
Jonathan Potter Professor of discourse analysis, Loughborough University
Ivan Powis Professor of Chemical Physics University of Nottingham
Colin Richards Emeritus professor, University of Cumbria
Professor Susan L Robertson University of Bristol
Professor Nicholas Royle University of Sussex
Professor Andrew Samuels University of Essex
Derek Sayer Professor of cultural history
John Schostak Professor of education, Manchester Metropolitan University
Professor Lynne Segal Psychosocial studies, Birkbeck College, London
Prem Sikka Professor of accounting, University of Essex
Professor Ernesto Spinelli ES Associates
Professor Corinne Squire Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London
Professor Jackie Stacey
Professor Guy Standing SOAS University of London
Paul Stenner Professor of social psychology, The Open University
Professor Howard Stevenson School of Education, University of Nottingham
Richard Taylor Emeritus professorial fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge University
Lyn Tett Professor emerita, University of Edinburgh
Professor Harold Thimbleby
Professor Brian Thorne University of East Anglia and the Norwich Centre
Liz Todd Professor of educational inclusion, Newcastle University
Sally Tomlinson Emeritus professor, Goldsmiths London
Stan Tucker Professor of education and social policy, Graduate School, Newman University
Mathias Urban Professor of early childhood, University of Roehampton
Professor Isabella van Elferen Kingston University London
Valerie Walkerdine Distinguished research professor, Cardiff University
Professor Tim Waller Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
Professor J Benjamin C Whitaker Head of physical chemistry, University of Leeds
Dr Stephen Whittle Professor of equalities law
Professor Sue Wilkinson Social sciences, Loughborough University
Professor Carla Willig City University London
Hugh Willmott Research professor in organization studies, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University
Dr Janet Wilson Professor of English and postcolonial studies, University of Northampton
Emeritus Professor Richard MS Wilson Loughborough University
Terry Wrigley Visiting professor, Northumbria University
Michael Young Professor of education, UCL Institute of Education

• The list of signatories above was amended on 7 July 2015. An earlier version omitted the first five names.