LIVE INVESTIGATION

This investigation utilises an advocacy/action research framework grounded upon case studies of political conflict at two UK Universities to provide an evidence base to assist public discussion on the role of HE into the future. Two universities have been selected that have faced conflicts in the last 10 years relating to the four pressures and threats facing modern HE institutions. We have chosen one central elite institution and one peripheral post-1992 institution in order to capture the divergence of public roles that HE fulfils. 

This living archive provides the opportunity to follow the research project as it develops. Here you will find videos of key interviews, short explainer videos, a blog, a podcast on Higher Education utopian visions, and conceptual analysis.

The data that informs the living archive will be derived primarily from the selected case studies. Importantly, the research questions necessitate that inquiry will start at the institutional level, but will shift to different political scales of operation as the complexities of the conflicts and pressures on HE become illuminated.

Case Study 1: London Metropolitan University

The first case study uses London Metropolitan University (LMU) to drive a conversation on how political conflict has led to the possibility of institutional failure for the first time in UK History. Studying LMU enables a discussion on the ‘third mission’ of HE, the ‘right to the city’, new public managerialism (NPM), PREVENT and the ‘ideal nation’, migration, and the legitimacy of HE institutions as drivers of state policy. In particular, the threats to the long-term financial viability of LMU point towards a wider crisis of state that may not be able to be solved at the institutional level. Significantly, the conflicts at LMU have been represented as public scandals that are largely framed as administrative or leadership failures, as opposed to symptoms of a sector struggling with rapidly shifting state policy and neglect as the UK seeks to determine its democratic and political identity. 

Key Conflicts

  • 2012:  LMU is forbidden from sponsoring international students. 
  • 2015: LMU Closes and sells parts of university campus to “luxury property developers”.
  • 2017: Surveillance cultures at LMU emerge including the monitoring of students, Islamophobic atmosphere, PREVENT, and reports of staff gagging and NDAs.
  • 2018: Will LMU “exit the market”? HE Ministers and the Office for Students are forced to consider whether LMU will be the first UK HE institution to fail.