SCONUL Response to "The Future of Higher Education" - UK Government White Paper

25 April 2003

SCONUL represents the directors of library and information services in all the universities, and most colleges of higher education, in the UK, as well as the directors of the UK's national libraries. We also represent our colleagues in counterpart positions in Ireland. Through SCONUL, library directors develop policies cooperatively for the benefit of library users and the scholarly community. SCONUL gives advice to government and other policy-making bodies on library and information issues, backed by professional experience and by a statistical database recording UK academic library operations and services over more than ten years.

SCONUL welcomes the general aims in the White paper of increasing funding for higher education in support of high quality teaching, learning and research (and so acknowledging years of serious under-funding) and of increasing fair access to study for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We also welcome the creation of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, partly to provide proper recognition of the range and quality of research in arts and humanities subjects, and partly because it will be the source of bursaries for qualifications in information management.

However, while we appreciate the challenges facing higher education outlined in the White paper, we believe that in several areas a more holistic approach to enhancing the students' experience might be helpful as higher education becomes more divers in its organisation and delivery. We include part-time students, postgraduates and international students in our comments, since they are a significant part of may universities, though not overtly covered in the White paper.

We would urge you to recognise the contributions made by learning and support services to the ability of universities to absorb additional students. Paragraph 1.19 mentions that the staff: student ratio has reduced from 1:10 in 1983 to 1:18 in 2000, yet the quality of the student experience, as demonstrated in QAA reviews, has remained either satisfactory or better in most cases. Indeed, SCONUL and its sister organization UCISA, have worked successfully with the QAA over many years. We would also draw your attention to the role played by library and information staff services staff in the formulation of learning and teaching strategies (for example in the use of VLEs and in e-learning) and to their broad remit in quality enhancement in these areas too.

Students undertake independent learning in libraries and are supported in this by library or learning support staff, in partnership with academic colleagues, to help them develop the confidence to learn effectively. All students are encouraged to develop information literacy and IT skills, which will remain with them for life, and it would be helpful if these were both recognised, as separate skills, in the list of core skills mentioned in 3.23.

We also assume that throughout the White Paper references to teaching include 'learning', since much of the student experience occurs outside the formal teaching environment. This was of course acknowledged by the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education which welcomed staff members from a wide range of backgrounds, including librarians and IT support staff, reflecting their widening contribution to curriculum delivery. We should like to see this retained in the membership of the proposed unitary body referred to as the Teaching Quality Academy (4.25).

We see research and teaching as essential and complementary parts of the work of universities. Increasingly, collaboration in research is underpinned by a growing spirit of cooperation in sharing specialised library resources across the country for the benefit of researchers. The new SCONUL Research Extra scheme, which allows researchers, wherever they are based, to borrow from most university libraries in the UK, will make an important contribution to increasing access to rare materials. We are also keen to see the development of information literacy and IT skills specifically for researchers. However, we are concerned that the intended concentration of research into fewer institutions may threaten some universities' ability to serve the needs of their region, particularly in the context of knowledge transfer (3.3).

We are also puzzled by the suggestion in 2.8 that equipment for research needs to be 'excellent' while libraries need only be 'good'. The recent report from the Research Support Libraries Group demonstrates clearly that UK university libraries are funded at dramatically lower levels than in the USA, yet still need to provide high quality resources to support the contribution of research to the economy. SCONUL, working with the JISC, will contribute to developing a nationwide Research Libraries Network, but this will require adequate funding as part of the research infrastructure (2.4) if it is to meet the needs both of blue-skies research and knowledge transfer. Indeed, we would urge you to include library and information resources as a key part of higher education infrastructure investment so that benefits can be enjoyed across the sector (we note the HEFCE Grant Letter for funding and delivery to 2005/6 has recognised the need for continued investment in ICT - digitised material and the Joint Academic Network - to support developments in e-learning; although we also note this is to be funded as a capital initiative). We need stable, long term funding for e-resources to allow better planning and purchasing strategies, as well as increased reliability of ICT infrastructure to facilitate access to such materials remotely. The issue of VAT on e-publications needs to be addressed urgently in the context of supporting research as well as teaching.

In the context of the agenda to widen access, new modes of delivery and more flexible ways to learn (5.25) will require investment not only in the initial, often expensive, development of e-resources, but also in supporting students who may need help at any time of the day (or night).

We believe the development of foundation degrees in further education colleges will do much to provide local learning opportunities for students, but will require significant investment in library resources and staffing (including professional development) to bring the quality of provision up to that of a higher education institution.

Finally, we wish to make a passing comment on the Leadership Foundation which, although not mentioned in the White Paper, has been referred to in the Grant Letter mentioned above. Directors of library and information services operate as part of the higher education management structure and have a vested interest in seeing the development of excellence in management and leadership. We would hope that the content of courses for senior managers reflects an understanding of the strategic importance of library, information and ICT services.

As a UK wide body, SCONUL would be pleased to work with the separate legislatures, including the Department for Education and Skills and HEFCE, to develop the issues raised above to ensure that students and researchers in the UK can benefit from the full range of library and information resources and services.