The increasing emphasis being placed on the financial value of a degree threatens the future of arts and humanities research, according to the vice-chancellor of Cambridge university.
The "purer disciplines" are in danger of losing out to more vocational courses which directly translate into salary benefits, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz warned.
In an interview with the Guardian, the vice-chancellor said: "I have an anxiety in the longer term for the health of the disciplines. This doesn't come at undergraduate level, but is what follows on from a postgraduate level. If you monetise the value of a degree, will you undertake an MPhil in mediaeval French poetry?
"You might undertake a law course which extends [your knowledge of] libel or whatever – because actually there's direct value in that postgraduate education which will translate into your career.
"But will some of the purer disciplines that do so much to enrich – will they still be as attractive to students?"
Borysiewicz said he was concerned that the country risked losing "a cadre of potential researchers" in the arts.
The vice-chancellor, who is making a speech on the arts at the university's Festival of Ideas on Thursday, also called for closer collaboration between the arts and sciences.
"The example I'd give you, [from] the world I've particularly worked in is the prevention of cancer. In a free society and a society that exercises choice it isn't enough to have the technological solution, you've got to know about the acceptability of that solution. We've got to know that people make an informed choice.
"You can't coerce people into those areas. So we need to know and understand why [when] everybody knows its bad for you, yet people will still opt to smoke. We've got to understand that. I don't know of any research that's conducted in pure science and technology departments that would help understand that – it requires this interaction with the arts and humanities."
The vice-chancellor, who studied medicine and is a former head of the Medical Research Council, said that the arts provided a distinctive way of engaging with problems.
"We talk about the science method. Actually there's a method in learning a language which is quite distinctive, and taking that away, that generic skill is huge. The way historians consider evidence, or the balance of evidence, or an archaeologist will consider evidence, is quite distinctive. For the broad-based university we must have all of those areas if we're going to address some of the global challenges."
The arts and humanities also enrich people's lives, he said. "Medical science can make us live to 90. If you haven't got the arts and humanities what's the point of living until 90?"
The vice-chancellor said there was no evidence that the arts and humanities would be "disproportionately affected" by the slashing of the direct teaching grant from government.
The coalition's proposed reforms to higher education will see the teaching grant declining while the proportion of income from tuition fees increases. The surviving teaching grant will be allocated to more expensive subjects such medicine, science and engineering.
The vice-chancellor said: "In fact I can give you a counter-argument that says they're the big winners, because ultimately it is cheaper to deliver an arts and humanities course and if you're getting more income in per student the gap that is unfunded is smaller in the arts and humanities than it is in the sciences. For Cambridge that will make no difference. If anything it actually improves the position, the financial side, of the arts and humanities."
However, he warned of the risk that students at undergraduate level would be deterred from the arts by higher fees. "People start asking what's the monetary value of a degree in English here? I can give you a strong case but will a prospective student, particularly from a poorer background, think that the case is strong enough? I think there's a lot of work to be done that we don't get a group of young students out there who are looking at university places, thinking that actually there isn't value in the arts and humanities even though that's where their instinct takes them."
While figures show that graduates still attract a hefty salary premium, this does not apply across all disciplines. Research by Ian Walker at Lancaster University found that a male graduate with a poor arts degree could expect to earn less over his lifetime than a man going straight into employment after A-levels. In contrast, Walker found that a law, economics or management graduate could expect to earn £30,000 a year more on average than a school-leaver.
Borysiewicz said that he did not expect high fees to deter students from applying to Cambridge. Instead, the university would benefit from a clustering effect which would see more than a third of English universities charging £9,000 as their standard fee next year.
He said: "If so many universities are charging £9,000 why wouldn't you apply to Oxford and Cambridge as one of your choices? So I'm not anticipating a reduction in our numbers."
The first applications figures for 2012 university admissions are due to be published by Ucas on Monday.
News By:
guardian.co.uk
The "purer disciplines" are in danger of losing out to more vocational courses which directly translate into salary benefits, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz warned.
In an interview with the Guardian, the vice-chancellor said: "I have an anxiety in the longer term for the health of the disciplines. This doesn't come at undergraduate level, but is what follows on from a postgraduate level. If you monetise the value of a degree, will you undertake an MPhil in mediaeval French poetry?
"You might undertake a law course which extends [your knowledge of] libel or whatever – because actually there's direct value in that postgraduate education which will translate into your career.
"But will some of the purer disciplines that do so much to enrich – will they still be as attractive to students?"
Borysiewicz said he was concerned that the country risked losing "a cadre of potential researchers" in the arts.
The vice-chancellor, who is making a speech on the arts at the university's Festival of Ideas on Thursday, also called for closer collaboration between the arts and sciences.
"The example I'd give you, [from] the world I've particularly worked in is the prevention of cancer. In a free society and a society that exercises choice it isn't enough to have the technological solution, you've got to know about the acceptability of that solution. We've got to know that people make an informed choice.
"You can't coerce people into those areas. So we need to know and understand why [when] everybody knows its bad for you, yet people will still opt to smoke. We've got to understand that. I don't know of any research that's conducted in pure science and technology departments that would help understand that – it requires this interaction with the arts and humanities."
The vice-chancellor, who studied medicine and is a former head of the Medical Research Council, said that the arts provided a distinctive way of engaging with problems.
"We talk about the science method. Actually there's a method in learning a language which is quite distinctive, and taking that away, that generic skill is huge. The way historians consider evidence, or the balance of evidence, or an archaeologist will consider evidence, is quite distinctive. For the broad-based university we must have all of those areas if we're going to address some of the global challenges."
The arts and humanities also enrich people's lives, he said. "Medical science can make us live to 90. If you haven't got the arts and humanities what's the point of living until 90?"
The vice-chancellor said there was no evidence that the arts and humanities would be "disproportionately affected" by the slashing of the direct teaching grant from government.
The coalition's proposed reforms to higher education will see the teaching grant declining while the proportion of income from tuition fees increases. The surviving teaching grant will be allocated to more expensive subjects such medicine, science and engineering.
The vice-chancellor said: "In fact I can give you a counter-argument that says they're the big winners, because ultimately it is cheaper to deliver an arts and humanities course and if you're getting more income in per student the gap that is unfunded is smaller in the arts and humanities than it is in the sciences. For Cambridge that will make no difference. If anything it actually improves the position, the financial side, of the arts and humanities."
However, he warned of the risk that students at undergraduate level would be deterred from the arts by higher fees. "People start asking what's the monetary value of a degree in English here? I can give you a strong case but will a prospective student, particularly from a poorer background, think that the case is strong enough? I think there's a lot of work to be done that we don't get a group of young students out there who are looking at university places, thinking that actually there isn't value in the arts and humanities even though that's where their instinct takes them."
While figures show that graduates still attract a hefty salary premium, this does not apply across all disciplines. Research by Ian Walker at Lancaster University found that a male graduate with a poor arts degree could expect to earn less over his lifetime than a man going straight into employment after A-levels. In contrast, Walker found that a law, economics or management graduate could expect to earn £30,000 a year more on average than a school-leaver.
Borysiewicz said that he did not expect high fees to deter students from applying to Cambridge. Instead, the university would benefit from a clustering effect which would see more than a third of English universities charging £9,000 as their standard fee next year.
He said: "If so many universities are charging £9,000 why wouldn't you apply to Oxford and Cambridge as one of your choices? So I'm not anticipating a reduction in our numbers."
The first applications figures for 2012 university admissions are due to be published by Ucas on Monday.
News By:
guardian.co.uk
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