Universities need to reignite the relationships they have with their students, says Vice-Chancellor

Higher education - perhaps more than other sectors – has had to respond to sweeping changes over the past few years.  Jo Johnson MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science has  challenged us to go even further, writes Professor Dominic Shellard.

I believe he is calling on us to reignite fundamentally the relationships we have with our students – and furthermore, I believe he is right to do so.

We need to be even clearer about how tuition fees are being spent and how they benefit our students and our university.

Just as they invest in us, we need to make sure that students realise how we invest in them – sharing our expertise, challenging their thinking and offering a transformational experience.   As the minister rightly indicates, delivering value for money for our students should be paramount and this is something that any forward-looking institution should make a priority.

Jo Johnson is right when he says that graduates are increasingly job-focused, and we should all aspire to do even more to make graduates ready for the job market.   We must ensure that the value of graduates is such that the decline of the traditional graduate earning premium, seen over the past few years, is reversed – and in turn boosts the UK economy.

The minister talks about rooting out poor lecturers.  While many vice-chancellors will certainly challenge that suggestion, I am sure that others will welcome the introduction of a new Teaching Excellence Framework which will support innovative and talented lecturers across the sector.  At DMU, given our reputation for teaching excellence, we aim to play a significant role in the delivery of this new way of recognising teaching and lecturers of outstanding quality.

The minister indicates that the Teaching Excellence Framework would create a foundation to support the introduction of a grade point average system for assessing student work and grading degrees.  I agree that the time is right to reassess the current classification system.

The minister also recognises that: “The Prime Minister has set an ambitious goal to double the proportion of those from disadvantaged backgrounds progressing into higher education by 2020 (compared with 2009).”

It is pleasing to know that DMU already bucks the sector trend in this area and will continue to do so.

Overall, the key message here is that none of us in the Higher Education sector can be complacent.  

DMU will continue to ensure that it creates opportunities for all as well as playing a leading role in the market, operating with agility and creativity, for the benefit of our students and wider society.