26 May 2016
Universities abusing their positions
Concern about loss of EU funding behind encouragement to Remain
by Lynda Goetz
Exeter is my alma mater. I, like many other alumni, donate the odd sum to keep the old place going; to help it keep up with its national and international rivals; to provide bursaries and so on and so forth. Exeter, along with several other universities, in contravention of rules advising institutions to remain neutral ahead of the referendum, has recently, it seems, been encouraging students to recognise the ‘benefits’ of EU membership. The vice-chancellor, Sir Steve Smith, has apparently sent an email to all undergraduates and Professor Melissa Percival, an associate Professor in French, Art History and Visual Culture, has also emailed students to tell them Brexit would ‘threaten the future of British students abroad’.
At Oxford, students allege that a discussion hosted by the principal of Trinity College, Sir Ivor Roberts, was used to encourage them to vote Remain. Although a spokesman said the university was ‘encouraging open debate on the issue’, they then went on to say that: “The University’s Council wishes to affirm the value that the UK’s membership of the EU provides to the university”. In Plymouth an event hosted by the politics professor, David Brockington, involving only three pro-EU speakers, was allowed to take place after students campaigning for Vote Leave were told they could not hold events as the university would only host a ‘fair and unbiased event’.
What on earth is going on here? Surely universities should be places where open debate on this important issue is encouraged? Students should be questioning the dubious statistics offered by both sides and arguing the merits of leaving versus staying. Members of the public should be being invited to high level debates with top quality speakers who are masters of their subjects. We should be able to hear the historical perspective, the economic perspective, the political perspective and the moral and philosophical perspective. Universities should be, for those of us not in the capital, the places where we can go to listen to and participate in stimulating and interesting debates, discussions and question-and-answer sessions. Why are the universities peddling the snake oil of Remain and playing a ‘nanny knows best’ (or should I say ‘teacher knows best’) game?
The answer of course is simple and boils down, as do so many things, to self-interest and money. Exeter University, Oxford University and Plymouth University are all part of the Erasmus Plus Programme, developed from Erasmus, the EU funded initiative set up originally in 1987 as the student exchange programme. Named after the Dutch philosopher it is also an ackronym for EuRopean Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students. Erasmus Plus was started in January 2014 and is the €14.7 billion catch-all initiative which incorporates all the EU’s current schemes for education, training, youth and sport. Over the past twenty years over two million students have benefited from Erasmus grants with some 4,000 institutions over 33 countries participating (the Erasmus Mundus scheme involves exchanges between Europe and Developing Countries).
However, that is not the whole story. Universities also receive EU funding worth €70.2bn for research and innovation under the Horizon 2020 programme. EU funding provides an additional 15% on top of the UK Government’s own research funding, clearly amounts that our higher educational establishments are not keen to lose. Funds requested by UK higher education institutions from the EU rose from €508.6m in 2008 to €856.3m in 2012 according to a Guardian online blog by Joanna Newman, Director of the UK Higher Educational Unit, in November 2013.
I do not know what Sir Steve Smith’s email to his current students actually said. What is clear is that these figures should be broadcast to all, not just to current attendees at particular institutes of higher education. However, the public should also be apprised of the fact that, prior to the Erasmus project, cultural exchanges did exist – they were just perhaps more limited. Those of us studying foreign languages could and indeed did go abroad, often as lowly ‘assistants’ in high schools for a year rather than being able to study at a foreign university with the tuition fees waived or receiving an additional living allowance. We did gain the experience of living and working in a different county and culture and increased our ‘intercultural awareness and adaptability’, the soft skills now vaunted as an integral part of Erasmus. Although Switzerland was suspended from the programme in 2014 following its popular vote to limit access for EU immigrants, and there is every reason to believe the same would happen to the UK were we to leave the EU, this does not rule out re-negotiated arrangements. The UK does not, or did not, take as much advantage of the programme as other nations, coming in at only sixth in terms of total students participating in 2013. It is also noteworthy that the UK was one of the least enthusiastic of participating nations originally – having its own exchange arrangements in place already.
Of course, Sir Steve Smith, Sir Ivor Roberts and Joanna Newman all consider the EU as crucial to ‘the fortunes of our higher educational sector’. This is because they are all part of that professional elite, which Steve Hilton*among others has identified as benefiting the most from our participation in the EU experiment.
Desiderius Erasmus, was known as an opponent of dogmatism. He lived and worked in many parts of Europe to expand his knowledge and gain new insights. Perhaps it is time that both our educationalists and our politicians stopped Dishing Out Gobbledygook and Started Debating the Issues which are Neglected and Need Evidence and Reasoning so that we could all be in a position to make a rational decision on June 23rd free of this mess of self-interest and dogma which is being foisted on us by those in power.
*former director of strategy for David Cameron who this week added his voice to the Brexit camp
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