Universities must reconnect with the outside world, says UCL professor

This from the man whose publications consist largely of book reviews, short pieces in obscure edited collections, encyclopedia entries, and the occasional preface. Perhaps if his own research agenda was more significant, he would not be so quick to denigrate and deride the efforts of others. Stefan Collini, for the record, is a fantastic scholar. His work will be relevant to our historical understanding of British culture for decades to come. Perhaps he does not appear on BBC as often as Professor Stewart, but I will take substance over bombast any day of the week. This is a classic example of the type of dumbed-down, top-down management that is, in fact, undermining the scholarly, political, social and intellectual relevance of UK HE. How ironic, considering his stated goals. We can't all be tele-dons, nor should we aspire to be.

Brilliant retort, Adrian. This article is typical of the 'business model' nonsense which has pervaded universities over the last 30 years, and wants to treat them as if they are no different to a factory churning out toilet rolls or tins of dog food. As for 'lack of innovation', we've had nothing but top-down change and Whitehall or managerial 'initiatives' for three decades, all of which have generated ever more bureaucracy and box-ticking, and hence less time for scholarly activities. Besides, when academics do put forward innovative ideas or propose changes, these are often dismissed by university managers for not being compatible with the university's 'strategic five-year plan' or not being supported by a sufficiently 'robust business case'. Over-management has stifled academic innovation, not the alleged 'conservatism' of academics themselves. As to the privileging of research over teaching - this is primarily because university managers and VCs are obsessed with the REF, and pressuring (bullying?) academic staff to procure research grants to buy themselves out of teaching. The problem is not with the 'conservatism' or resistance to innovation of academics, but the over -regulation, over-bureaucratisation and micromanagement by senior administrators to which academics have been subjected for the last 30 years, as universities have been transformed into pseudo-corporations run by bean-counters, business managers and 'quality assurance officers'.

Well you can check it out for yourselves the list of publications: https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=MSSTE18#tabsProfilePub