Oh calamity. I seem to have deleted, or not saved, my notes of the first session on Monday afternoon. From memory, Michele Shoebridge, who runs a super-coverged service called Academic Services, including libraries, IT and student services, welcomed us and talked us through the plans for new buildings on the campus. Then the V-C, Professor Steve Smith, spoke, giving his view of the current and future state of higher education funding. Many of his arguments can be found in his recent Observer article, but the main points I recall are
- We need not fear the budget too much; it is the autumn's Comprehensive Spending Review which we should fear more; he expects it to require cuts of 20-25% over four years
- He talked at some length about tuition fees, a misnomer, he was keen to point out, and what might happen after the Browne review reports. He sees us descending into a valley, whose depth we do not know, and eventually ascending on the other site, but to what altitude?
We ran out of time so, though I had my hand up, I couldn't ask him, as I intended, to ask him to describe how he saw the future of HE and FE partnerships.
That doesn't do justice to a rich and thoughtful analysis. But if my notes ever appear, I shall amplify it. I also commend to you Lex Rigby's account: http://www.lexrigby.com/2010/06/22/cofheucr-fifth-joint-conference-day-1/