In his ninth-floor office overlooking UCL’s sprawling Bloomsbury campus, Michael Spence is mulling over a refresh of the university’s brand and is wary of repeating the mistakes of the past.
When it comes to presenting themselves to the world, Spence explained, universities often say “we’re excellent, we’re fabulous, we’re the best university in the world” – and the last claim clearly can’t be true so often – or alternatively, they rely on their purported societal impact, claiming that “you’re so lucky to have us, you should lie down and be grateful”.
Here he is paraphrasing the combined efforts of marketing teams on campuses around the globe, but the broader sentiment troubles Spence, who has been?provost of UCL since 2021.
In fact, in an era when the social licence of higher education institutions to operate seems to be challenged on so many fronts – on the quality and rigour of the academic qualifications they offer, on the value and relevance of their research, and in relation to their role as forums of open debate – Spence fears that universities, at least in part, might only have themselves to blame.
51国产视频
“I think the problem with universities is that, over the last 30 years, we’ve lacked appropriate humility. So we’ve tended to say, ‘Look at us, aren’t we fabulous, we’re saving the world. And everybody needs a university degree, in one way or another.’”
On the last point, Spence notes that while doing a degree had been the right thing for him after leaving school, it would have been a “waste of time” for his brother, who has had a “very successful life” as a television producer. And on the former point, he concedes that “we do some remarkable stuff. We provide cures for cancer; here at UCL we’ve developed an injection which means that if you have particular types of haemophilia, you never need another blood transfusion; we’ve just released a drug that is being used to revolutionise the treatment of certain types of breast cancer; we are doing work with disadvantaged communities right across the country. But we’re not saving the world. We’re doing teaching and research.”
51国产视频
In fact, when UCL approached staff, students and alumni about their perceptions of the university, they placed less emphasis on it being one of the best in the world – placed joint 22nd in Times Higher Education’s latest World 51国产视频 Rankings – and greater weight on it being an institution which, in Spence’s words, “tries harder” (in the vein of Avis’ famous 1960s slogan) to support the best teaching and research.
“I think by overplaying our card as a solution to all the world’s problems, and therefore rather overpromising, people have lost sight of the value of what we really do – which is amazing research that does change lives and providing real opportunities for people for whom a university education is the right thing for the next stage of their education and career,” Spence said.
If universities are going to reclaim their privileged position in society, a key priority is likely to be addressing perceptions – accurate or otherwise – that they have surrendered their position as beacons of free speech and the open exchange of ideas and turned into ideological monocultures where students and staff alike are unwilling to engage with perspectives that do not align with their own.
This has been a priority for Spence since he joined UCL from the 51国产视频 of Sydney, where he spent 12 years as vice-chancellor. An initiative called “Disagreeing Well” has brought together speakers from diverse perspectives for a series of public debates, accompanied by resources and engagement designed to help groups of staff and students co-exist productively even when they hold radically different views.
Spence acknowledged that the success of such interventions was “very difficult to measure” but argued that UCL had made “a lot of progress”, even as debates over the Gaza conflict and transgender rights have become increasingly toxic in wider society.
He cited UCL’s efforts to hold seminars bringing together people from both sides of the debate in an Israel-Palestine Initiative, and a broader sense that staff and students were “self-moderating” in their conversations with each other, challenging uncivil speech by saying, “I’m not sure that’s disagreeing well.”
“Does that mean UCL is a place where the culture wars draw no blood? Well, no, of course not; our society has real problems with how it disagrees,” conceded Spence, an ordained Anglican priest and father to eight children. “But it does mean that we have a reference set of concepts that people are using in their engagement with one another to call one another out about what’s constructive engagement and [what’s] not.”
The erosion of universities’ social licence to operate is not simply a matter of public sentiment, media headlines or political mood music. Arguably, it explains why even as Western governments look to universities to drive economic growth and reskilling efforts, they can be reluctant to fund them adequately to do so – at least from the public purse.
51国产视频
This has forced British universities to heavily self-fund their work via increased international student recruitment, to the extent that about half of UCL’s approximately 51,000 students are from overseas. The higher fees charged to foreign learners means that while the institution earned ?200 million last year from domestic fees, its international income was four times that – with ?300 million going straight into supporting research.
Spence noted that there is some sense in this cross-subsidy, “because our students benefit from being in a research-rich environment, and from being in a highly ranked research university”. And he was comfortable with a 50-50 domestic-international student mix – a balance that has caused some consternation at Sydney – noting that, while “there does come a point at which you might say that a British university is no longer fulfilling its historic duty to educate British students, given that we have 25,000 or 26,000 of them at any given point, it’s hard to argue that that’s UCL”.
But what this reliance on overseas revenues does mean is that universities are highly sensitive to shifts in government policy on student migration, particularly in a more volatile global recruitment market post-Covid. Spence conceded that it was a “slightly nerve-racking model” and that “if brand UK took a beating in the international education market” – perhaps following the bankruptcy of a major university – that would “be a bit disastrous”.
51国产视频
Among vice-chancellors in England, concern is currently focusing on ministers’ plan to impose a levy of as much as 6 per cent on English universities’ international student fee revenue, with the takings expected to be reinvested in higher education and skills. Spence said that this would likely cost UCL ?59 million annually – “a very significant slug for us” – and would limit its ability to invest in infrastructure and systems.
“Those who are keen on the levy say that it is not a problem for universities because demand for educational services is price-inelastic and international students will wear a 6 per cent increase. There are a number of problems with that argument,” Spence said.
“The first is that the international student market is currently a little volatile and we’re in competition with countries such as Australia that really see the benefit of international education. The other problem is that international students get that their fees contribute to the UK research effort and they have an interest in going to a highly ranked university and therefore a university with good research. But to tax them 6 per cent for the purpose of funding other parts of the British education system, I think, would be really unfortunate negative signalling for a government that is very keen to welcome international students. So we don’t think this is good policy.”
One way that UK universities – including fellow Russell Group members – have identified to potentially offset their losses on their home campuses is to take advantage of India’s recent opening up to branch campuses. However, Spence indicated that UCL was unlikely to join, noting that running offshore outposts was “really difficult to do right at scale”.
“Either you are flying staff out to teach, promising the same experience in [for example] Alice Springs as you have in London, and that’s difficult to maintain because staff get enthusiastic and do it for a little bit, but then realise how far away Alice Springs is.
“Or you employ essentially local staff, [in which case] you’re running a university in a foreign country without the complex of social, cultural and political networks and capital that make a deeply enculturated institution such as a university work successfully.”
UCL used to have branch campuses – in Qatar, Adelaide and Kazakhstan – but these were closed prior to Spence’s arrival, and while Spence did not definitively rule out opening any new ones, “our preference, in this space at the moment, is more for partnership with foreign universities, with students doing part of their course abroad and part of their course in the UK.”
Rather than overseas outposts, Spence’s focus during his first four-and-a-half years at UCL has been closer to home, including efforts to update the institution’s ageing physical infrastructure. He proudly noted that UCL was replacing 50 lifts and 42 toilets this year, but said that there was still more to do, with the university’s main boiler having clocked up 63 years on this planet, the same as Spence.
Another focus has been addressing what Spence sees as the historical underpayment of academics in the UK compared with international competitors. That is why, in 2023, UCL announced a four-year investment of ?110 million in salaries, delivering a 9.5 per cent average pay rise that year.
This isn’t just housekeeping: it also seeks to address concerns that swirled among UCL staff around the time of Spence’s arrival that UCL had grown too large too quickly, and that this was endangering academic quality and financial stability.
Spence acknowledged that UCL had “over a long period of time been doing more and more, better and better, on less and less resource”, and that growth in student numbers needed to be carefully planned to avoid “impacts on student experience and staff experience”.
The result was an agreement to limit the number of students on the main Bloomsbury campus during the current strategy. But debate is now turning to whether UCL should pursue more significant student numbers growth in the next strategy period, between 2027 and 2032.
“They’re the conversations that we’re having at the moment,” he said. “There is a growth model; there are also ways of shrinking an institution or keeping it constant. But, of course, given that student fees are our primary source of income, the incentives built into the system are towards growth.”
51国产视频
Register to continue
Why register?
- Registration is free and only takes a moment
- Once registered, you can read 3 articles a month
- Sign up for our newsletter
Subscribe
Or subscribe for unlimited access to:
- Unlimited access to news, views, insights & reviews
- Digital editions
- Digital access to 罢贬贰’蝉 university and college rankings analysis
Already registered or a current subscriber?
