Why the hysteria about efficiency?

If you are part of UK Higher Education or have an interest in HE, you will have heard about efficiency. There is talk of efficiency in the media. You may have heard of the Diamond review(http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/Publications/Documents/2011/EfficiencyinHigherEducation.pdf). There is a VAT free shared service initiative to make Universities more efficient. The cry for efficiency is loud and clear. This discussion of efficiency is driven by public perception and Government hope that we can get more for less public investment. When it comes to teaching there has been a never-ending mantra of efficiency. And, yes, in case you were wondering it has got to the level of the rank and file.

Don’t get me wrong, efficiency is good. I am for efficiency and believe we owe our students and the public our best, but... There are unexamined assumptions here. The real question for leaders in HE is not how to become more efficient, but what to do with more money to avoid becoming inefficient.

Looking at the 4 funding groups relative to 2010/11: the A group (clinical medicine, dentistry, and veterinary science) will see a modest 5 to 6% increase. Similarly computed increases for group B (laboratory sciences like biology, chemistry, and physics), Group C (studio and field work), and group D (class room based subjects) will be  17%, 21%, and 34%, respectively. As noted in the previous post: the typical student is a Group C or D student. A large injection of cash is heading into the universities.

Most universities will see an increase in teaching income. Depending on the distribution of programmes across the subjects this increase could be substantial. In this context, where is this hysteria for efficiency coming from.

This focus on efficiency misses the point. With efficiency measures and more money in the pipeline, the real question is where will this money go. What is being done so it is not vacuumed up in vanity projects, inefficiency, or otherwise wasted. Without a plan, inefficiency will follow. Efficiency is good, but all the shared service intiatives, all the savings of rationalised estates, all the new money can be vacuumed up in a few bad decisions...

On the other hand if hysteria is needed, worry about student numbers, worry about clinical subjects being closed because they are not profitable, worry about expensive white elephants,...  There is plenty to worry about.