On-Island higher education - Dr Michael Goldstein

Summary

This article comments on the recently published Policy Centre’s paper ‘University education on-Island’, written by Sir Mark Boleat. It identifies that some progress has been made in provision since the work carried out by the author through the former Higher Education Development Group and the Skills Board, but there continues to be a complete absence of Government policy or strategy for higher education (HE). Much more needs to be done to develop a strategic approach to improving the scale and scope of on-Island HE. It is argued that the discussion needs to be broadened to embrace a wider definition of HE, and that new providers are needed to achieve this. Above all, there needs to be far better cooperation between the various delivery parties, in order most effectively to extend the range of provision, to provide a focus and raise the profile of on-Island HE, to share resources, and to give the strategic leadership required. The previously proposed Higher Education Centre for Jersey would be a practical way to achieve these objectives, and thereby better serve the interests and needs of the Jersey population.

Background

On 12 December 2023, the Policy Centre published a paper University education on-Island, authored by Sir Mark Boleat. This is not the first time that this topic has been considered. In 2004, I was invited by the then Department of Education, Sport, and Culture (DESC) to carry out a review of the needs and demands for Higher Education (HE) delivered on Jersey. As is evident from Mark’s paper, there is a remarkable similarity between his prime recommendations and mine. As a result of my report, Ministers set up the Higher Education Development Group (HEDG) in 2005 to take matters forward, bringing together officers from ESC and Economic Development, and leaders of Highlands College.

Over the three years of HEDG’s existence, I wrote several papers covering HE policy and implementation, seeking to balance the views and motivations of relevant players, and responding to changing external circumstances. I found a reluctance to change, and even lack of recognition of the needs – there was a strong view amongst many Jersey people, including staff at Highlands College, and I suspected in Government – who thought that any HE delivered on the Island should not be for school and college leavers – they should get off the Island and broaden their experiences. There was even more reluctance of key players to talk to other parties. There were always competing interests, and the evolution of the series of HEDG papers reflect attempts to seek common ground which was shifting as new players and propositions emerged – particularly plans for the Institute of Law Jersey, and the emergence of the Jersey International Business School (JIBS), BPP University, and a group proposing a (privately funded) ‘University of Jersey’. Nonetheless, significant progress was made, and HEDG’s main achievements were:

• Creation of a small number of degree programmes at Highlands related to Jersey’s employment and business needs, developed in partnership with relevant employers, and with substantial employer engagement in delivery.
• Making the case for the Bailiff to establish an on-Island degree in Law, to be incorporated into the (then) proposed ‘Jersey College of Law’ (later to be the Institute of Law Jersey).
• Ensuring that the work of HEDG continued through the new Skills Board.

In respect of the latter point, as a member of the Skills Board, I continued to develop policy for on-Island HE and some key documents are included in the Compendium of Papers on Higher Education in Jersey 2004-2015, published alongside the Policy Centre report. I had strong support from the initial Chair, Richard Plaster, and the next and last Chair, David Witherington, which meant that I was able to develop a lot of ideas and new work. The prime example is the entirely new and vastly more effective approach for Jersey to train local people as nurses, on-Island.

In the many HEDG and Skills Board discussion papers and reports, proposals were repeated but with changing language and emphasis to seek consensus as to the way forward. But the constant, very simple, messages remained:

• Jersey needs more Island-based HE – that case is very clearly made in Mark Boleat’s paper for young school-leavers, but I would like to go further with a wider definition of HE.
• It can do more with organisations already in place.
• It also needs to attract other parties so as to broaden the provision, and I give later examples of earlier work, some of which could have come to fruition if there had been positive responses from Government.
• Above all, there needs to be much better collaboration – Jersey is too small to sustain isolated small pockets of activity and it could do far, far better, and more, if there was true and effective collaboration. This was the recurring theme of HEDG and Skills Board recommendations.

These propositions are developed further below.

Progress since 2004-2015

Some things have changed for the better since the work of HEDG and the SB:

• The degree in nursing which the Skills Board persuaded Ministers to adopt in 2011, has come about and is an excellent example of on-Island degree provision for Jersey people which meets a clear employment need. The nursing workforce across the Island, in the Hospital and in care homes, was worryingly thin and unstable prior to that time. It was said by a Jersey businessperson who was involved, that the scheme saved Jersey from a catastrophic failure when the COVID pandemic came.
• Institute of Law Jerseyhas become firmly established. Discussions were held with the then Bailiff (Sir Philip Bailhache) in 2007, who was focussed on formalising the conversion of English lawyers to Jersey law and finding a home for the law library. We argued that there was a need for a law degree delivered on the Island, and it is really good to see that established.
• There is more trust in Highlands, and collaboration with others is to be hugely welcomed. But it is not clear to what extent it goes beyond being a landlord for the Jersey International Centre of Advanced studies (JICAS) and the Institute of Law. When the review of 2004 was undertaken, Highland’s reputation with some employers was very low; there is a strong argument that the work that HEDG did to establish degree programmes in partnership with employers initiated this turnaround.
• JICAS has become successfully established and seems to have plans for expansion. It was the idea of the late John Lawton, who led the group promoting an (international) ‘University of Jersey’ – the model rejected by Guernsey, rightly in my view, not least because it is a distraction from what are the real needs of these Islands. While there is an economic argument for such a model, albeit one of some serious risk, it would seem to be low down in Jersey’s HE priorities, so it should now be put to one side at least, even though there are doubtless some romantics who still consider it to be the way forward.

One concern is that there is no reference in the Policy Centre paper to Durrelland its work with the University of Kent and various others. This is a great pity, given the international reputation of Durrell. A paper on how this could better benefit Jersey people was received by the Skills Board.

There is one other change of note:

JIBS has been taken over by BPP. That simplifies the scene but does make BPP potentially an even more important player.It appears that it offers in Jersey only professional and CPD courses under BPP International Finance. It should be encouraged to offer its degree programmes as BPP University – within the collaborative framework recommended by the Skills Board. Some very productive meetings were held with BPP.

Otherwise, fundamentally, and in Government policy and action terms, nothing has changed. All the repeated recommendations on collaboration and creation of a strategic overarching body, seem to have come to little after nearly 20 years. I suspect there is still a prevalent view that on-Island HE is of marginal importance. It is to be hoped that the work of the Policy Centre will dispel that view, and that the socio-economic arguments will be better understood by policy makers.

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Broadening the scope

It is argued that the scope of the current debate should be extended:

• HEDG and the Skills Board focussed their HE work on employment into the Jersey labour market and the needs of the Jersey economy. The Policy Centre paper rightly extends the discussion to on-Island HE more generally, responding to the needs of the people, which are typically far broader. This is particularly relevant in the context of Jersey’s very restricted spectrum of local economic activity. HE is not only about providing a route to employment, but has an intrinsic benefit, not least to strengthen democratic and cultural values. Meeting both needs must be done in a way which does not generate lack of clarity of mission or dilute efforts.
• The Policy Centre paper clearly and very ably addresses the issue of the paucity of on-Island HE for school and college leavers. But there should be a wider view which embraces the totality of the HE needs of Jersey. University level education is much more than undergraduate degree courses for such people. HEDG identified other needs – particularly high-level management and leadership development needs in both the private and public sectors. There were discussions with the Cass Business School in London, and also the London Business School, which put forward some concrete proposals as to how this might be achieved. Many of the big organisations in the finance sector get their management and leadership development from their parent operations and/or send their people to expensive Business Schools or other programmes in London and elsewhere – that is very costly and not efficient. It would be better to spend that money in the Jersey economy.
• There is also an argument to make strong provision in postgraduate professional and ‘conversion’ courses which offer graduates from a wide range of undergraduate degrees the opportunity to enter the local economy. That would also enable Jersey people who have moved to the UK or elsewhere for their undergraduate education to return to Jersey. Conversion courses in law, such as the Legal Practice Course, would be one such example.
• Another area which deserves attention is support for entrepreneurs – there are so many good examples of how the training and development of entrepreneurs can be enhanced by HE inputs; indeed there are degree courses which specifically incorporate entrepreneurship and new business development. Develop local entrepreneurs on-Island, and you will have new businesses starting up in Jersey; if they have to go to off-Island to study that is where they are most likely to set up their businesses.
• There needs to be reference to emerging technologies – there should be good opportunity for Digital Jersey, with Highlands, to make provision for higher level skills in collaboration with HE providers – the Island surely needs people qualified in systems development, internet security, artificial intelligence et al.
• The nursing provision should feature more prominently in Jersey’s HE development. There will likely be resistance to any intervention, as there was in the UK, but the move of nurse training from hospital to educational settings transformed healthcare development in the UK - 30 years ago. Putting nursing into the mix with other provision can, as it has in the UK and elsewhere, stimulate a wider range of courses and broader educational experience of those being trained as nurses. It can also generate new provision, such as in paramedical training, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, dietetics, physiotherapy, sports science, health and wellbeing, and so on. In many UK Universities, Health is a major component of the academic provision.
• The links between HE and adult and technical education are all important. The relationship between Highlands and the Plymouth degrees is such that they provide a seamless transition for those who do not excel initially at school. We all know people who have achieved remarkable things in this way.
• There might be some omissions in the review of current activity. There used to be on-Island routes to qualified teacher status, graduate professional youth worker qualifications, and a degree in art and design via Highlands and the University of Plymouth; some reference to HE studies with the Open University, which had a high level of local participation, is also relevant.

Moving forward

It is worthwhile repeating the essentials of conclusions thus far, as described above:

• Jersey needs more Island based HE.
• It can do better with what is already there.
• It needs to attract other parties.
• There needs to be much better collaboration.

So there are three things to do:

1. Build on what is currently operating if it is to high standards. If necessary, provide some seed corn funding, as was done back in 2005-7.

2. Attract new players (Universities) – but only those that can meet Jersey’s needs, not those that want to plant a thousand or more international students on the Island – I don’t think Jersey wants that. The Skills Board explored options with:

a. The University of Reykjavik – arising from one of the Ministers being Iceland’s representative in Jersey. They came with a strong delegation, but nothing came of this, probably because they saw nothing in place which would persuade them that they could make a short-term success.

b. The University of Brighton – some excellent discussions were held at senior levels and a paper was agreed outlining some exciting modes of collaboration. However, nothing came of this; the controls on UK student population numbers changed and the University lost interest in the absence of a positive response by the Government.

c. BPP, prompted by the Skills Board, carried out some market research on expanding its provision of professional qualifications into degree courses to be delivered on the Island and discussed the prospect with a number of key parties in Jersey (Highlands, Jersey Finance, Government officers and politicians). It became committed to furthering this aspiration, but nothing came of it – largely due to change in personnel and particularly the demise of the Skills Board.

d. The University of Buckingham had ambitious plans - including a financial plan – to set up a campus in Jersey. Some concerns with the plan were expressed to the University, but in any case, the University decided not to proceed as it considered developing a London campus was a greater priority and it could not spread its efforts too much at that time.

e. The London Business School – a proposal to explore how it could establish a series of workshops in Jersey for senior management personnel (a Jersey Leadership Laboratory) was sent to Ministers but not progressed. It would have required significant financing.

3. Most critically, and as has been repeatedly emphasised in papers to HEDG and the Skills Board, the various provisions should be brought together under a common umbrella, as soon as possible, in due time as a legal entity that can raise funds (including Government funds), employ people, and own premises; that will enable joint working and synergy; and, critically, provide the strategic leadership which is absolutely required. Compare it to a shopping mall, a retail park, a business park or whatever, but let it develop an identity and induce collaboration with all the players, so that in due time it would be, in effect, Jersey’s University. A detailed paper on that is included in the Compendium attached to the Policy Centre paper – the name of that collaboration was called the University Centre for Jersey (UCfJ), a title that is still applicable today – maybe, in the absence of any strategic action in the last 10 years, it is even more relevant. Initially, the UCfJ would be a collection of individual brands operating with a common website, but if collection became co-operation and then collaboration, the UCfJ could become the more dominant brand. It would be an evolving organisation also in the sense that the partners would change over time. Strategy would be linked to planning, and new players would be brought in, while others might fall away.

Finally, where I would take slight issue with Mark Boleat’s recommendations is this: in my view, Jersey doesn’t need any more reports. You have enough. They have been around for some time, as demonstrated by the Compendium. The time is well passed to get on with the job.

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Dr Michael Goldstein CBE was formerly Vice-Chancellor of Coventry University. He has been non-executive director of a wide range of UK local, regional and national organisations in the voluntary, public, and private sectors (including as Chair of an NHS Trust, a professional registration body, and an education marketing company). He has been involved in developing higher education in Europe, Malaysia and South Africa. In his earlier career as an academic scientist, he published large number of research papers, but since then he has written occasional articles and conference presentations on education policy, educational marketing and registration of forensic practitioners. He has written several review chapters in scientific books in the past, and in the last few years has published three biographies. He has undertaken consultancy work in Jersey from 2004 to 2015 and continues to be the academic member of the Jersey Postgraduate Bursaries Panel.