Almost one in three colleges ‘won’t hit performance targets’

Almost a third of higher education institutions believe they will fail to achieve performance targets upon which a portion of their funding depends, a survey shows.

The Deloitte financial survey of the higher education sector identifies a “high sense of uncertainty” among universities, institutes of technology and private colleges, as well as frustration with perceived Government interference with management affairs.

Some 29 per cent of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) said they did not think they would be able to achieve the maximum funding based on meeting goals agreed just a year ago with the Higher Education Authority (HEA).

Up to 10 per cent of state funding can be withheld if the targets, set out in negotiated "compacts", are not met.

Any loss of funding would create further problems for HEIs, 76 per cent of which described the core grant as “inadequate” in the survey.

The results were presented at a conference in Dublin on Tuesday which heard that universities worldwide were seeking to increase the number of fee-paying international students as a means of meeting financial challenges.

An undersupply of college places in China makes it one of the biggest markets for European universities, and the "financial risk these days is minimal", said Prof Roger Woods of University of Nottingham, which has set up a sister campus in Ningbo, near Shanghai.

“Where the risk is is in reputation”, he said. Some universities have developed partnerships in China, “perhaps with the profit motive in mind”, and have generated a quick surplus but have suffered reputational damage.

He admitted there was unwarranted intervention at times from the Chinese authorities but his university would not remain there unless there was academic freedom. “It’s a process. We have to keep reminding, and we have to keep talking.”

The trade-off was that the university now had the “opportunity to educate the next generation” of Chinese leaders, he said.

University of Nottingham has also hosted a Confucius Institute on its UK campus in conjunction with the Chinese government agency Hanban since 2007. "It's part of the mosaic. It's useful. We like it but it's not a big piece."

He stressed, however, that to build a presence in China “you really need insiders who are sitting beside you and can tell you what is happening and can make the necessary connections.”

The survey of 17 HEIs, including five of the state’s seven universities, showed near universal agreement (94 per cent) that government policies were negatively impacting on their ability to increase student numbers.

The employment control framework, which caps the number of academic staff, has had the largest negative impact on computing, with business and humanities second, respondents said.

Deloitte identified an “interesting paradox” for Irish HEIs. “In order to obtain a greater allocation of the recurrent fund, an increase in student numbers must be achieved. However, increasing student numbers typically requires additional expenditure.

“The challenge faced by HEIs is to increase student numbers without increasing expenditure.”

The report says that “Irish HEIs have an opportunity to consider smarter investments, utilise emerging technologies and existing infrastructure, in order to offer an alternative and a most cost effective higher educational experience to learners”.

Speaking at the conference hosted by Deloitte, Dr Fiona Hunter, a researcher with the Milan-based Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation, said the "economic rationale" was the main reason universities were seeking to develop links overseas.

She urged HEIs to instead see internationalisation as a “means to enhance the quality of education, research and service to society”. This would mean a greater focus on “internationalisation at home”, giving all students on the home campus a more globally-focused education.