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3 Int'l J.L. Built Env't 5 (2011)

handle is hein.journals/jppel3 and id is 1 raw text is: The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1756-1450.htm Guest editorial: the end of the End of the British public British public university? university? Martin Hall Vice Chancellor, University of Salford, Salford, UK 5 Abstract Purpose - This editorial aims to review key changes in the legislation that governs student finance in England, showing how these changes will have a significant impact on the concept of the public university in Britain. Design/methodology/approach - The assumptions behind the 2010 review of student financing in England are analysed in the context of key aspects of the political philosophy of the British coalition government, elected in 2010. Findings - While presented as an immediate solution to challenges in public financing, the introduction of full-cost graduate contributions will significantly affect the balance between the recognition of private benefit and public good in the role of the university as an institution. Practical implications - The review will contribute to informed discussion and debate for a key aspect of public policy in the UK. Originality/value - The review moves discussion from immediate concerns about the level of graduate contribution to aspects of the long-term structure of the higher education system in Britain. Keywords Universities, Higher education, Students, Finance, Social mobility, United Kingdom Paper type General review Introduction The public university is one of the great institutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Stemming from multiple roots, universities were places of opportunity, the generation of new knowledge and public intellectual life. They were based on a broad, often unarticulated concept of learning and knowledge as a public good. In the wake of the Second World War, universities in Europe and North America opened their gates to the middle classes, driving sustained economic growth. This is being repeated today across India and China, as the epicentre of the world economy shifts to Asia. While the public good has often been sustained by private contributions, whether through endowments, fees or contracted research, British universities have had an ethos of public accountability, and have been widely seen as civic institutions, alongside public libraries, cathedrals, art galleries and concert halls. This will now change. In accepting the principles of Lord Browne's Review of University Funding and Student Finance, the UK's coalition government will complete a process of privatization that began in the recommendations of Lord Dearing's report of 1997 (Browne et al., 2010; National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (the Dearing Report), 1997). Most students - and all students in the social sciences, arts and humanities - will pay for the full cost of their education through a system of graduate contributions. In addition, the coalition will propose, initially through a White Paper, opening up higher International Journal of Law in the education to privately owned, for-profit corporations. Built Environment While there is nothing inherently wrong with the private provision of a university p. -1010 degree - in India, for example - more than 70 per cent of universities and colleges © Emerald Group Publishing Limited are private - it is worth looking beyond the rage of students and their parents at some DOI 10.1108/17561451111122570

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