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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)

June 04, 2003, Wednesday

SECTION: Pg. 01

LENGTH: 256 words

HEADLINE:

Universities can forget research

BYLINE: By John Clare Education Editor

BODY:
PLANS to scrap the traditional, internationally recognised definition of a university and grant the title to at least seven more institutions were announced yesterday by Margaret Hodge, the higher education minister.

To the dismay of vice-chancellors and lecturers, she said the title of university would no longer be confined to academic communities that conduct scholarly research across a range of disciplines.

"The most important requirement for the university title should be the quality of an institution's teaching and the number of students enrolled," Mrs Hodge said.

Nor would there be a bar to colleges that teach one or two subjects - and do no research - becoming universities.

The first seven colleges to benefit will be the Bolton Institute, Buckinghamshire Chilterns, Canterbury Christ Church, Liverpool Hope, the London Institute, Northampton and Worcester. They educate about 50,000 students.

The announcement represents an even more fundamental change than the Conservative Government's decision in 1992 to allow polytechnics to call themselves universities.

The present Government wants half of all young people going to university by 2010. The current proportion is 43 per cent.

Universities UK, the body that represents vice-chancellors, said breaking the link between teaching and research would devalue degrees and damage the international reputation of UK higher education.

The Association of University Teachers said: "It makes a mockery of the very concept of a university."
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LOAD-DATE: June 4, 2003