CHERI - Projects - HE Futures. Jointly with the UK Higher Education Policy Institute, and supported by the Open University, CHERI organised a series of seminars to bring research and policy perspectives together on some of the major issues facing the future of higher education in the United Kingdom.
Nationally and internationally, higher education is experiencing a period of radical change, the scale of which – despite considerable public debate – is scarcely appreciated by many of those who will be most affected by it. Debate has been driven largely by practitioner and policy interests and has often paid insufficient attention to the increasing knowledge base provided by research into knowledge societies and economies, globalisation, social justice and higher education itself. The series of four seminars, held during 2008: Teach online to compete, British universities told. Universities should make their course materials freely available online, according to a paper for the latest edition of ppr, the publication of influential thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research.
The researcher and activist Leo Pollak argues that UK universities lag behind in providing course materials online but could innovate more than their US competitors. The government should establish a central online "hub" where taxpayers could easily access British university course materials, he says. Brian Street UCL Debates in HE acadlits.pdf (application/pdf Obj.