In the previous chapter a chronology of the development of higher education between 1960 and 2020 was offered, almost entirely confined to the UK but with a brief coda about the development of higher education in the wider world. In the present chapter the focus is on four themes, or transformations. The first three transformations – on ‘steering’ and regulation; the coordination and funding of higher education; and institutional governance and management – are discussed almost entirely through the lens of the experience of the UK, although similar developments took place in many other countries. The fourth transformation – of the intellectual landscape – is of much wider application, although the focus is also on how this has played out in UK higher education. Again, there is a brief coda that looks more widely (both geographically and conceptually).

‘Steering’ and regulation

Since 1960 far-reaching changes have been made in how UK higher education is ‘steered’, funded, planned and regulated, at both system and sector levels. At the start of this period the University Grants Committee (UGC), first established in 1919, still – just about – acted as an effective buffer between universities and the state which provided the bulk of their funding, but on an arm’s-length principle (Berdahl, 1959; Carswell, 1986). By the end of the period (in England, at any rate) arrangements for ‘steering’ the system had been completely changed. The Office of Students (OfS) had been established. As a regulator, like the bodies that regulated many other sectors such as broadcasting (Ofcom), energy (Ofgen) and standards in schools (Ofsted), which shared the ‘Of-label’, it was designed on quite different principles to the UGC. Yet, despite this, universities, although they had diversified their income streams, still received a high proportion of their funding from what would once have been called ‘publicly planned’ expenditure, both grants for high-cost teaching from the OfS and quality-related research (QR) funding from Research England, but also student fees initially bankrolled by loans provided by the state-owned Student Loans Company. It is difficult to imagine a more striking transformation of system governance.

From the late 1960s to its eventual abolition two decades later, the UGC adopted an increasingly interventionist approach towards universities, while preserving the principles of arm’s-length funding and of a block grant for both teaching and research which universities could use at their discretion.