Cry Freedom: The Regulatory Assault on Institutional Autonomy in England’s Universities

By James Tooley

'Forensic and impassioned' Baroness Wolf
'A must-read essay for those interested in the battle for the heart and soul of English Higher Education' Carl Lygo

A clarion call for academics and policymakers alike, Cry Freedom prompts reflection on the evolving relationship between government and higher education. The book challenges compellingly the accepted wisdom that all universities are public entities controllable from Whitehall.

It urges readers to reconsider the core values of academic autonomy and freedom of action that were supposed to be enshrined in 2017's Higher Education and Research Act but which have come under increasing regulatory assault.

'Brilliant and disturbing' Lord Lilley
'Important analysis' Lord Willetts
'Insightful book' Lord Agnew
'This important and well-written book combines a meticulous approach to evidence with a persuasive argument' Nick Hillman
'Wonderfully erudite, and jolly cogent' David Palfreyman

• Language: English
• Publisher: Legend Press
• Release date: May 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9781917163996

James Tooley

James Tooley is Vice-Chancellor at the University of Buckingham and professor of educational entrepreneurship and policy. He was professor of education policy at Newcastle University for two decades and was previously an academic at the Universities of Oxford and Manchester. His groundbreaking research on low-cost private education has won numerous awards, including gold prize in the first International Finance Corporation/Financial Times Private Sector Development Competition, a Templeton Prize for Free Market Solutions to Poverty, and the National Free Enterprise Award from the Institute of Economic Affairs, London. The views expressed in this monograph are personal and do not reflect Buckingham’s policy or practices.

Book preview

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James Tooley’s analysis of England’s university regulator is both forensic and impassioned. It explains why the House of Lords was, rightly, so worried about the legislation which established the Office for Students. It explains why an undiscriminating assault on autonomy threatens the quality of our universities, and the education of our citizens. And it also provides an accessible and convincing account of just how regulation goes wrong: something which, in our ever more regulated society, we need to address with urgency. I recommend it not just to the higher education sector, but to anyone concerned with the functioning and malfunctioning of our state.

Baroness Wolf

Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector

Management, King’s College, London

This important analysis shows how the autonomy of universities is now under real threat from intensifying regulation going way beyond what Parliament intended. If this carries on then one of the great historic strengths of our higher education system will be lost.

Lord Willetts

Minister for Universities and Science, 2010–2014

James Tooley’s brilliant and disturbing analysis of how the university regulator is undermining the academic autonomy on which the pre-eminence of Britain’s universities is based should be required reading for anyone connected with academe – from Vice-Chancellors to the parliamentarians who unleashed this bureaucratic leviathan.

Lord Lilley

Secretary of State for Social Security, 1992–1997

Professor Tooley brings a lifetime of educational entrepreneurialism to tertiary education. But this insightful book is a cry of pain. What were once world-leading institutions are being strangled by a combination of trying to educate far more young people than they are equipped to manage and overweening, leaden-footed regulation. At a time when Britain should be in poll position to lead in harnessing the blizzard of technical progress across so many fields we risk sliding into irrelevance. This book should be read by the regulators doing the damage and putative politicians who care about how we educate and upskill the next generation of young people.

Lord Agnew

Minister of State for Efficiency and Transformation, 2020–2022

This important and well-written book combines a meticulous approach to evidence with a persuasive argument. The strength of the UK university sector has always rested upon the autonomy of its institutions but that autonomy has often been under attack. Defending it is a challenge James Tooley takes on with his customary humour and élan.

Nick Hillman

Director, Higher Education Policy Institute

Wonderfully erudite, and jolly cogent (although having been on the OfS Board I can’t agree with all of it!).

David Palfreyman

Director, Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies

Professor Tooley has produced a seminal work on the activity and impact of the Office for Students (OfS). As a Barrister and former board member of the OfS, I truly admire the brilliant legal analysis that Professor Tooley applies. Parliament clearly intended OfS to respect the institutional autonomy of English Higher Education but step by step Professor Tooley uncovers how increasingly that autonomy is being lost to the latest Government agenda of the day. This is a must-read essay for those interested in the battle for the heart and soul of English Higher Education.

Carl Lygo

Vice-Chancellor, Arden University

Cry Freedom

The Regulatory Assault on Institutional Autonomy in England’s Universities

James Tooley

with John Drew

university of buckingham press,

an imprint of Legend Times Group LTD

51 Gower Street

London WC1E 6HJ

United Kingdom

www.unibuckinghampress.com

First published by University of Buckingham Press in 2024

© James Tooley, 2024

The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available.

isbn

: 9781917163989

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be resold, lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the express prior consent of the publisher.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Introduction and

a conundrum

An independent university

A conundrum

For most of their history, no public funding

The great success story of British universities

Chapter 2: The overriding importance

of institutional autonomy

What the CEO of the OfS says

Seven freedoms

Seven general duties

Overriding importance

Chapter 3: Institutional Autonomy

in Parliament

The House of Lords amendments

From all parties and none

Counting spoons

Chapter 4: The Secretary Calls

Two priority areas

Political guidance

Chapter 5: Let it B

High quality academic experience

Effective delivery

Resources, support and student engagement

Chapter 6: Be Still and Know

Condition B3: Student outcomes

Chapter 7: Teaching Excellence

REFugees

Condition B6: the TEF

The oddity of ‘Requires Improvement’

The impact of TEF

Autonomous providers?

Numerical interpretation

Subjective assessments

An attack on all ‘seven freedoms’

Chapter 8: Equality of Opportunity

Shocked

HERA 2017 on equality of opportunity

The OfS on why markets can’t deliver equality of opportunity

Take the A train

Cambridge style

Social engineering

At considerable expense

A political agenda

Chapter 9: Transparency

Condition F1: Further regulator overreach?

Condition F3: The Goldilocks condition

Chapter 10: Conclusions and

recommendations

What is to be done?

Endnotes

References

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Cry Freedom

Chapter 1:

Introduction and

a conundrum

An independent university

When I became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham some three and a half years ago, the major attraction was that it was an independent university.¹

What did I understand by an ‘independent’ university? In normal usage an ‘independent’ university is synonymous with a ‘private’, in contrast to a ‘public’, university (Hillman, 2017). I came to Buckingham because it was a private university. My life’s work hitherto had been in (affordable) private education (Tooley, 2023). The fit was obvious.

I was also aware that the University of Buckingham was founded in the 1970s as an antidote to increasing government control of universities. In the introduction to the seminal paper setting out the case for this new independent university, Arthur Seldon, editorial director of the Institute of Economic Affairs (and father of my predecessor as vice-chancellor, Sir Anthony Seldon), wrote: ‘For some years the increasing finance of universities by government has provoked thought on the urgency of at least one major centre of university teaching and research that would be free of government finance and therefore of government influence.’ (Seldon, 1969, p. 4).

The founders included well-known academics at prestigious universities. A planning board for the new university was set up, under the chairmanship of Sir Sydney Caine, director of the London School of Economics – it was by no means a fringe body. The board outlined how independence was not only a moral good in itself, but also provided the basis for academic excellence, ensured innovation and entrepreneurship, and guaranteed academic freedom and free speech.

However, as I was preparing to assume office, I realised that there was much more complexity to the issue of university independence than I had previously rather naïvely assumed.

For a start, Seldon’s comments that being free of government subsidy would lead to freedom from government regulation now seem wholly off the mark. More or less any provider of higher education has to register with the regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), whether or not they receive any public funding. Specifically, any provider has to register, according to sections 58 and 70 of the OfS Regulations (OfS, 2022c), if they want to acquire or maintain degree awarding powers, use a university title, access public grant funding and/or student support funding, and wish to bring in international students (with a Tier 4 licence from the Home Office). In other words, more or less all providers are required to register with the OfS.

The OfS classifies providers of higher education into two categories, ‘approved (fee cap)’ and ‘approved’, which