Johnson: OfS hasn’t stopped universities ‘operating like cartel’

Good architects think their designs through before building them, so that they (a) stand up and (b) stand the test of time. Bad architects don’t.

Government introduces tuition fees over past 20+ years and retreats from direct taxpayer funding of the modern mass costly HE industry (which indeed has ‘cartel’ characteristics given its monopoly of credentialisation). Thus, the student-consumer is created and then Government has a clear duty to offer consumer protection. And hence HERA17 plus the OfS since nobody can possibly trust Us or indeed any other supplier, public or private, to self-regulate (Adam Smith and the tendency towards a conspiracy against the consumer once providers gather together). No surprise that the regulated squeal and whinge. All as foretold in Tapper & Palfreyman, ‘Reshaping the University - The Rise of the Regulated Market in Higher Education’ (Oxford U Press, 2014). Mix of AI-informed learning, remote/hybrid teaching, supply of micro-credentials recognised by key employers, lifelong-learning grants, resurgence of FE delivery = cartel-busting + an eventual paradigm shift in the productivity of HE? If only…