Mergers and Linkages in British Higher Education

Abstract In its pursuit of the cost‐effective expansion of higher education (HE), the British Conservative government has strongly encouraged competition and has opened the HE sector to the influence of market forces. This policy has certainly helped to drive down unit costs but it also has an inherent destructive potential which requires to be mitigated by a whole spectrum of collaborative structures. To study the interplay between competition and co‐operation in British higher education, it is useful to focus on the relationships between higher education institutions (HEIs) as manifested in mergers (both actual, proposed and ‘failed’) and the various forms of inter‐institutional linkage which are leading to a re‐alignment of HEIs in the post‐binary era. A number of forms of linkage, stopping short of merger, are defined and illustrated: for example, affiliation, validation, accreditation, franchising and access arrangements, and the important function of consortia is underlined. However, because they exist within a matrix which is basically competitive, such forms of co‐operation are subject to stress and disruption. The British higher education system manifests an unusual degree of flexibility which has enabled it to adapt organically to new policies and challenges. It is more permeable than that of most other European countries, but this permeability is gradually being endangered by increasing UK reliance on formal legislation in HE. Experience abroad, notably in Australia, indicates that wholesale dissolution of boundaries, combined with fierce forms of competition, can in the end lead to serious deterioration in educational standards. A balance between competition and co‐operation must be sought, but can never be ‘established’ once and for all because external circumstances require it to be constantly re‐adjusted. The research on which this paper is based was carried out with funds from the Economic and Social Research Council and from the Faculty of Education Research Committee of the University of Ulster.