Some comments from Howard Newby – chair of HEFCE

Drivers for change – social inclusion, economic competitiveness and regional agenda

Found it quite hard to concentrate on this talk. I think basically he is saying that the HE sector is moving into a competitive environment and this is going to lead to questions about competition and collaboration, how the funding council works in the competitive environment (will it help out HE institutions which are not so successful? How does it best manage the public interest?)

Roger McClure – Chief Exec of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council now making some comments

Interesting that he was asked to talk about ‘competing in a collaborative environment’, but he feels we should really talk about the reverse – collaborating in a competitive environment. This seems indicative of the change in attitude that is necessary in the HE sector.