‘Look harder’ on efficiency, UUK president urges sector

The rise of the bureaucracy and administrative functions is a direct result of universities being expected to do too many things beyond their core remit of education and research in the UK. They increasingly must deal with social problems that in a functioning state and sane society would be covered by the health services, welfare services etc. Better, these issues would not arise in the first place due to a decent education and care system that prepares children and makes them confident and resilient, irrespective of their background. Universities are even expected now to spur entrepreneurship and economic growth, help to regenerate communities while reducing regional disparities. This is in addition to the many auditing, marketing and other administrative tasks as well as edutainment activities (sorry, the student experience) and property management that are a direct or indirect consequence of the pseudo-market created by the UK government. Universities are paradox institutions. They ought to serve society on the basis of an ever-expanding remit while being forced to operate and compete like corporations. Pushing both institutional logics together and maintaining the illusion of a higher education market requires ever more admin and bureaucracy. This is the legacy of new-public management and one of the main contradictions of neoliberal policies in the UK since the 1980s. Instead of becoming more effective and efficient (“cos private businesses do things best and the market is always right”), organisations forced to operate in these pseudo-markets are actually suffocated by admin, bureaucracy and activities outside of their core purpose.