Six heads of colleges have this week urged Oxford to reduce its financial reliance on the government and find alternative, independent sources of income.As Oxford gears up to launch the largest private funding campaign in its history, the dons declared their support for a strategy to establish other sources of revenue in order to limit state intrusion into the University’s affairs. The six backers included Sir Michael Scholar, President of St John’s, one of Oxford’s wealthiest colleges, and Professor Bernard Silverman, Master of St Peters College, which receives one the lowest returns from annual endowments. Dr John Davis of All Souls, Sir Ivor Roberts of Trinity College, Lord Butler of University College and another college principal, who wished to remain anonymous, also all supported greater financial independence. Davis argued that excessive reliance on government funds is restricting the University’s freedom. He said, “I am in favour of trying to diminish the University’s dependence on the state. Oxford is a national institution, and we would always have to consider the national interest in what we do: courses, admissions, research. My experience is that accepting anything from the state, even just a shilling, is taken by the state’s men as a license to inquire and to attempt to regulate.”Sir Michael Scholar also claimed that greater financial independence would reduce government intrusion. “It would be better for the University to rely on a greater number of different funding bodies or people, so that no single body would have too much influence on the way in which money is spent, because this reduces the freedom of the University,” he said.There has been less agreement on how the University might go about reducing its reliance on the government. Suggested measures include receiving less money from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), which this year is providing Oxford with £167m – 27 per cent of its total income – to support its core teaching and research activity.A spokesperson for Dame Fiona Caldicott, Principal of Somerville, said that it is currently “entirely unrealistic” for the University to privatize, but calls for a gradual reduction of the Hefce teaching grant have been met mainly with approval. Bernard Silverman of St Peters College said, “If every old member voluntarily followed the example of those (rich and poor) who are generous to us in recognition of the education they received…we would be able to decrease our reliance on Hefce by increasing our self-reliance, and provide a really excellent education for all, regardless of their means.”Proposals to declare independence of government funding were floated by Lord Butler of University may not be able to charge higher tuition fees in the market place in the short term.”
Civil servants denied that the state intrudes upon Oxford’s independence. Tim Foley, a spokesman for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said the Higher Education Funding Council had been created specifically to dispense grants in an impartial and non-intrusive manner. “We have created an agency that is separate from the government deliberately in order to keep decisions about funding at arms lengths, so I’m not sure where that accusation [of unwanted intervention] comes from,” he said. “Hefce is a ‘non-departmental public body’ that distributes public money to universities and colleges in England that provide higher education. Its funding is allocated on the bases of the number of students attending the university and on the amount and quality of research it conducts.”
Hefce spokesperson Philip Walker maintained that the organisation preferred to leave higher education bodies alone in deciding how to use their resources, but he did not oppose calls for greater financial independence.“We try to have as light-a-touch approach as possible, and we try to reduce levels of intervention. Funding is allocated by formula, which means the use objective criteria…our funding does not have strings attached.”He added, “We encourage universities to seek funding from a wide range of sources. All universities rely on government funds, but it is up them to determine to what extent.”The central University office refused to comment on the issue.It has been suggested that the University could raise the fees for students from higher-earning backgrounds to improve its financial situation. Alan Ryan, Warden of New College, and Lord Butler have both made persistent calls for middle-class students to be made to pay higher fees. Robert Kenny, co-writer with Anthony Kenny of ‘Can Oxford be Improved?’ has suggested that if Oxford charged wealthier students £8,910 – the average fee for pupils attending private schools- the University would bring in £29 million extra annually, around half of the Hefce teaching grant.
The same book argued that whilse the University might be able to replace the loss of the Hefce teaching grant by raising extra endowment of £998 million, it was unrealistic to think it could raise the £4.6 billion endowment to replace the Government’s research funding.
College heads push for autonomy from Whitehall
