Teaching and Research in UK Universities

Abstract

University teaching and research are so different in character that each really needs to be managed in a different way. Furthermore, the funding of teaching and of research by the UK government, following a recent shift in responsibilities between two of its departments, is increasingly being separated. In adapting to such changing circumstances, a university should, suggests David Thomas, structure its senior management to include two posts immediately below the Vice Chancellor, one responsible for the overall policy coordination of the university's teaching programme and one for its research activities. Within each of these areas of responsibility will be minor activities carried out primarily for financial gain rather than in fulfilment of the university's academic mission. Such activities, it is proposed, are best handled through subsidiary companies, outside the main management structure, to help preserve the true academic nature of the university against threat of distortion by market forces, and also to safeguard its charitable status.