Higher Education: EUC Report

Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve Excerpts

Thursday 11th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve]

My Lords, there is a great deal of interest, and I think importance, in the European Union Committee report, The Modernisation of Higher Education in Europe. We are indebted to my noble friend Lady Young for the report and for the many themes that it covers in some detail.

I am going to be, I hope, quite boring and concentrate on a single theme. It is discussed in paragraphs 50 to 57 and summarised in paragraphs 121 and 122. I shall put some questions to the Minister about the proposed new EU university ranking instrument, which goes by the uncharming name of U-Multirank and is, it is supposed, being developed by the European Commission. The topic is, I acknowledge, something of an outlier in the report and in the Government’s response, so it is probably pretty appropriate to reach it at the end of the debate. However, it is not unimportant; it is potentially expensive, it is unlikely to improve the quality of universities in the EU, and it is unlikely to contribute to their excellence in any way.

University ranking tables have, of course, become a well known currency and very often headline material during the past decade since the emergence of Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s academic ranking of world universities and the Times Higher Education world university rankings. As is well known—sometimes we preen ourselves on this—some leading UK universities have consistently ranked very highly on these measures, but initially few other European universities ranked highly. In the Times Higher Education rankings for 2012-13, which recently emerged, Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial were all in the top 10 and a further seven UK institutions were in the top 100. No non-UK European institutions are ranked in the top 10, but 16 are now ranked in the top 100. That is a change. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, that it is remarkable that five of those 16 are in the Netherlands.

Among other things, I think that shows that these rankings have, in the decade in which they have existed, great influence on university and national higher education policy and practice. Institutions strive to rise in these rankings. That is why, as the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, pointed out, the Max Planck institutes used to be outwith the university system in Germany and therefore did not count in the ranking, but the Germans have seen the writing on the wall and have now incorporated them into universities. It is one reason why German universities are coming up the rankings quite fast.

One might wonder why, given that the problem has to some extent been cracked, and European universities are now doing reasonably well using the existing metrics, the EU is still bent on devising a further ranking system. I think the answer is that one has to go back to when these rankings first emerged, less than a decade ago—it does not go back into history—and people were horrified that almost no European universities outside the UK were even in the top 100. The UK had some in the top 10 and a good number in the top 100. It was galling for institutions of high reputation and long history to find themselves with such low rankings. In particular, I think French and German universities were appalled.

That sense of injustice, whether the rankings were merited or unmerited, is a separate point that lies behind the hope that a new measuring rod will provide the answer and that it will somehow reveal the true qualities of European universities in a more compelling and fair light. It is hoped that U-Multirank will show the diversity of institutions and their merits by ranking different aspects of performance separately. It will supposedly give us a fairer picture. I suspect that if it comes to pass, people will quickly put the various rankings together and find a single ranking for all European universities.

Some French and German universities may now achieve higher scores and they may be less inclined to want to shoot the messenger, but for many of them, and also for many UK universities, the rankings still bring unwanted and what are felt to be unfair comparisons. They are still resented. That sense of grievance is spreading and it is bound to spread further as more institutions find themselves with lower rankings than they feel they deserve. Non-EU institutions of considerable distinction in other parts of Europe are also now experiencing that disappointment and resentment.

Recently, I had the good fortune to speak to the rector of St Petersburg who told me how startling and upsetting it had been to find Russia’s leading universities—St Petersburg and Moscow State—given lowly rankings. Naturally, they are taking what they see as appropriate measures to raise their scores—note I did not say to raise their standards, which is a somewhat separate matter. It is understandable that some institutions and Governments still think that U-Multirank is a useful project in Europe, but it is quite hard to find out either whether it is still on track or who is supporting it. At a meeting in Aarhus this spring on excellence in universities, under the Danish presidency, I heard great enthusiasm for U-Multirank. A prototype is supposedly now out to tender. It is said that the first version should be available at the end of 2013, and further versions at the end of 2014 and 2015—and that the European Commission wants at least 500 participating universities at the end of the first phase, covering at least the disciplines of business and engineering.

However, no one seems particularly enthusiastic about U-Multirank. The League of European Research Universities—a dozen or so highly selective universities not in capital cities—voiced its opposition publicly as early as 2010. The rectors of the Coimbra universities—another very selective group, although not quite as selective—are apparently not happy, as I heard at a meeting in May, but they have not to my knowledge gone public about being unhappy with it or opposing it. The European Union Committee was not enthusiastic, nor was the Government’s response, but the juggernaut appears to be rolling. Are Her Majesty’s Government going to take steps to disengage, or will they remain tepidly engaged? Are they content that matters should roll—or perhaps lurch or inch—forward, and if so, why?

I will ask the Minister a few simple questions about Her Majesty’s Government’s views and plans. Is the development of U-Multirank proceeding, or is it sputtering to a halt? How much is its development expected to cost in the current year? What costs are foreseen for future years? What estimate have they made of the costs to UK universities of collecting the additional data that will have to be submitted if U-Multirank goes ahead? Do the Government believe there is a reasonable likelihood that other European university systems will be able to compile the data needed for U-Multirank, or do they believe that the data likely to be submitted will be of low quality and perhaps even bogus? Do the Government think that the U-Multirank project represents value for money?

Above all, do the Government think that U-Multirank, even if it has integrity and goes ahead, will be useful? League tables give us just a ranking. What is needed for quality control is not a ranking or league table but a judgment, and sometimes metrics, of quality or excellence—that is, of the excellence of matters that are educationally important and that matter for research. Both the committee’s and the Government’s response suggest that a ranking might be helpful for applicants to universities, who would be able more accurately to compare institutions. That is just an illusion. Students need to know far more about a course before they apply for it and commit years of their life and considerable amounts of tuition money. I am sure that they will continue to rely on institutional websites, university prospectuses, the advice of current and recent students and teachers, and site visits. Open days are a way of gaining seriously relevant information.

Ratings or rankings are not substantive enough or sound enough to be useful for these decisions. Students need ways of judging quality, not comparative success. Excellence is not a positional good. There can be many excellent universities, or perhaps few. That is what we need to know. That is why there is no reason to think that UK universities are worse just because fewer of them are in the top 100; it is simply that others are taking steps to do better in the rankings. Relative success is a merely positional good. Someone will come top even if the standards are uniformly low, just as someone will come last even if the standards are uniformly high. Should we not aim for excellence and spend less time and money on ranking? In the end, one is tempted to ask whose benefit the U-Multirank is being compiled. Cui bono?

Will the Government take an active stance? If, as I suspect, they think U-Multirank is not needed or valuable, why not say so? We could save some money and put it into research.