Through a glass darkly Measuring the social value of universities

Part 11. Measuring value in higher education - contested territory1.1 From the outset it should be acknowledged that seeking to place a value on the work universitiesundertake is a difficult and frequently controversial task. There are conceptual, definitional, linguistic,philosophical, cultural and political issues involved as well as methodological and data challenges.1.2 Not everyone within the higher education sector itself is convinced that valuation of higher educationactivity is a worthwhile task – some consider it to be ‘giving in to the bean counters’; others believethat measuring value generation will tend to be focussed only on the aspects of higher education thatare more easily ‘counted’ - for example: ‘research papers produced’, ‘contracts awarded’, ‘numbers ofstudents taught’ and that this will result in a superficial, ‘Gradgrindian’ 5 picture of what universities doand how they contribute to society.1.3 Others are also very uncomfortable at the idea that the value of what universities do could beexpressed in monetary terms. In particular they are concerned that this will lead to a focus solely onwork that generates revenue or is directly ‘economically relevant’ - and will overlook ‘non-economic’benefits.1.4 The heated debate in recent years regarding the Research Councils’ and Funding Bodies’ ‘ImpactAgenda’ - which many in the higher education sector would still resist if they could - gives a flavour of thecontroversy surrounding attempts to examine the benefits being delivered by higher education and, inparticular, the suggestion that funding should be tied to evidence of benefit generation.1.5 However, despite sectoral unease about ‘valuation’ being potentially linked to funding allocation, itsimply cannot be ignored that issues of funding and resource allocation are at the very heart of the driveto seek ways to evaluate the contribution of universities to society. The UK higher education sector hasgrown substantially over the last 15 – 20 years, with growth largely supported by public investment.Since the time of the Dearing Inquiry into Higher Education there has been a 39% increase in studentnumbers, from 1.79 million students in 1997 to 2.49 million students in 2010. 61.6 Increased public financial support has inevitably led to increased demand for accountability andfor evidence that society is receiving a return on its investment in universities. At a time of economicconstraint, hard decisions have to be made about the allocation of public resources. In 2010/2011 thishas led to central UK government policy decisions to make quite significant shifts in the balance betweenpublic (by the government) and private (by the individual) investment in higher education with individualstudents being asked to pay significantly more for their higher education through increased fees. Thispolicy shift is not uniform across the regions of the UK, with devolved government decisions differingfrom central government. However it has underlined the point that if universities (and their students)are asking for public finance to pursue their aims, there needs to be a clear justification for money to bespent on higher education that could be spent instead, for instance, on hospitals or schools. There needsto be evidence that social and public value is being generated by public investment; the social benefitsneed to be greater than the social costs. So while accountability and justification for funding may not bethe only rationale for seeking a better understanding of higher education’s contribution to society, it iscertainly the main driver.1.7 Accountability for funding is not an issue confined to higher education alone. Other sectors, mostnotably the ‘third sector’ 7 and parts of the public sector, have also been facing the challenge of showinghow their work ‘makes a difference’ and can generate value, thereby justifying their funding – fromgovernment, or from private donors and sponsors. There has been a debate carrying on in the ‘culturalsector’ for several years regarding how best to show the importance of supporting cultural activities (anda growing academic literature has developed on the value of culture). 8 Indeed the higher education sectorhas at times seemed to be lagging behind other sectors in recognising that justification for funding isnecessary and that the value of higher education needs to be demonstrated, not simply assumed.1.8 All of the evidence that we reviewed from other sectors’ efforts to articulate, explain and providemeasures of social or public value revealed that these efforts were driven by discussions of resourcesand funding. In the course of articulating their purposes and objectives the various organisationswere seeking to demonstrate their ‘higher purpose’ and their aims for a broader good - but they were4