For university leaders, a little economics is a dangerous thing

Well it is a good article in general. However, the growth in bureaucracy and the appointent of failed academics into the senior management team of universities is like a cancer in the system (yes most of them can't publish in 3* and 4* journals so they join the management team instead and then spend all their time telling academics they must publish in 4*journals). The growth of bureaucrats, silly rules and procedures, managers who do not know how to teach and assess students forcing their silly ideas on academics is costly both directly and indirectly. The managers suppress the rewards to the academics who do the teaching and research while over rewarding themselves when their value added is often negative. To do this they want bums on seats and want to dumb down standards and grade inflate to keep the students happy. There needs to be a major cull of senior managements and the excessive bureaucracy and stupidity that accompanies them - they gobble up the resources and try to cut to the bone the salaries of the academics. Until this issue is addressed there will continue to be insufficient resources to reward, retain and attract the academic talent required.

While it is just economics and not rocket science, most VCs and the senior 'team' know little or anything about management (which isn't even fireworks science). As I joked to one DVC, who had medical background, "if they learned how to do medicine they way they learned how to do management, they would have been stacking the bodies in the hallways". So you are hoping for 'wisdom' (the wise university) from those that lack the knowledge to convert into wisdom (the chain information -> knowledge -> wisdom). As I wrote in some other THE articles you cannot really reform the system we have evolved into by (a) tinkering with it or (b) hoping to go back to some vaguely mythical past; particularly if the people who have got you where you are are going to be expected to be the people who are expected (and I would say foolishly) to get you where you want to (or need) be.

There is a pandoras box to be opened in some universities in terms of pay and governance. Short termist leeches are the bane of UK university system. Low quality leadership is the norm rather than the exception and staff as paying the price. Most of the time things tick along because academics and frontline professional services staff just get on with their work - you just cant but not do it as you are directly in front of the students. Many of the academic leeches only ambition is to get some paper into some 4* journal, whatever it takes. Most of their time is spent trying to snare some well published american author to join the team in the hope that they will help put their paper into some top journal. They call it "paying the game". Some UK unis are so desparate to get papers for the REF that one 4* is enough to get you thousands in personal value supplements as a bonus you also get to insult people's people intelligence everyday by telling them that without a 4* they are unworthy to be academics.