Fiona Hill: higher education’s future ‘is on the line’

How sad that a PhD in Russian studies has absolutely no historical pespective on higher education. Ms Hill, it's not 1970!

The idea of expanding access to Higher Education is of course a laudable one and most liberally-minded people around the globe would find it difficult to argue with this. As another person has already commented though, for Goodness' Sake, it's not 1970 and I think it is grossly misleading to portray university entry as something that remains the preserve of the societal elite. If anything, certainly from my own perspective of working for the past 3 decades in UK Higher Education, I would say that the opposite is largely true. Even when I myself first went to university in the 1980s (first in family; working class parents; could only afford it thanks to a local HEA grant, and even then, by doing lots of part-time evening jobs and summer holiday work) the percentage of people entering university nationally in the UK was often cited as 5%. Let's face it though, it still wasn't exactly elitist. Most of my peers still came from the secondary comprehensive sector, as did I, not private schools like Gordonstoun or Eton . One problem I have with Ms Hill's stance is that she appears to think that UK universities in the UK are somehow frozen in time. Rather than worrying about increasing wider access, when it comes down to priorities, I think she would be much better off talking to her senior academics at Durham and looking into getting the educational standards within HE back on a par with how they used to be. What HE so badly needs is a concerted push-back against the tide of neo-liberalism which has all but engulfed us. Getting people into university isn't really the problem here; making sure that they have an intellectually stimulating experience while they're there, are held properly accountable to achieving certain academic standards, and manage to leave having actually learned something useful for our society more often than not is.

Although I agree with much of the above, the author should be accorded her title as "Dr Hill" or else it looks like an example of micro-aggression. It is a constant struggle to get recognition of such things in the media and society so let's not repeat the mistake here. PS. I fall into the same category as "Professor Ed", so not a woke kid but someone near retirement.

My sincere apologies for the oversight of not addressing Dr Hill's title; certainly no intention of micro-aggression.

I too grew up in a nearby pit village then teens in a council house in Bishop Auckland but didn't have Fiona Hill's way 'up' thanks to then 11+ (fail!), and started work in a factory in B/A just after my fifteenth birthday. My only way out was through H.M. Forces ending up belatedly with a PhD in neurochem and an academic career. Universities are great places for scholarship, silly for workplace training, i.e. grading people for the uni's true role in reproducing the class system. I wish 'Billy's bairn' the best of luck - we need her. Perhaps what is needed is a system of continual mutual nourishment between the abstract scholarshsip and the workplaces, at all levels, without access/grading being an issue. See bit.ly/3B28wa1, and maybe ow.ly/zpIp50HiKjQ