American Perspectives on British Higher Education under Thatcher and Major

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses some of the persistent themes in the troubled relationship between government and universities over the past 18 years‐‐the absence of serious discussion, and of trust, between them; the dilemmas facing governments committed to a market ideology but also considering themselves responsible for academic standards and the distribution of students between subjects; the curious insistence by both government and academics that, despite continuous cuts in per capita support, standards have not fallen and may even have risen; the decline in ‘truth telling’ by the academic community, and its acceptance of a new language to describe their activities; the deformations of academic life flowing from the attempts to measure departments’ research quality. It concludes with some observations on academic ‘slack’ that the Thatcher/Major governments wished to eliminate, and a summary characterisation of their policies over the last 18 years.