New England/old England

New England Journal of Higher Education, The, Fall 2001 by Ward, Cynthia V L

The ungentle laws and customs touched upon in this tale are historical, and the episodes which are used to illustrate them are also historical.

So begins the tale of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court in which Mark Twain explores issues and values, both ancient and modern. A similar purpose motivated Johnson & Wales University to offer a new two-- credit course this spring entitled "Universities Past and Present."

The course was designed to acquaint graduate students, particularly those in the Higher Education Leadership Doctoral Program, with the antecedents of American higher education and with the current issues being faced by European universities.

This year, the course included a seven-day, six-night trip to England. The planned course/trip in the second year will concentrate on France and in the third year on Italy. In preparation for the trips, students are expected to read widely and choose relevant research topics based on historical or current issues. Upon returning, the students write research papers on the topics using the information gathered from the reading and the trip.

England emerged as an excellent location to launch the course, considering the continuing preeminence of its two ancient universities and their linkages to the early system of American higher education, as well as the fairly recent changes in the British university system and, of course, the common language.

Despite their original similarities, however, the higher education systems of New England and Old England differ in significant ways.

While U.S. colleges and universities have various types of control-institutional, local, state, regional and national-English universities have essentially two: institutional and national. In addition, all English universities, except one-the University of Buckinghamshire-are supported directly with public funds. As a result, all English universities are subject to fairly uniform government control and funding mechanisms as well as highly structured assessment processes.

Increasingly, English higher education has become less elite, more egalitarian and, therefore, more similar in many respects to the American model.

In 1992, the government converted former polytechnics and some colleges of advanced education into universities, thus doubling the number and enrollment of English universities.

In 1998, a uniform tuition of 1,000 pounds or $1,500 U.S. per year for fulltime students was imposed, resulting in English university students paying a relatively small portion of the cost of their education. The government also abolished tenure for new faculty members and now sets faculty salaries, which are low by U.S. standards.

After a brief introduction to the English university system, our group of 12 New England students and staff embarked for England.

Some notes from the trip journal:

Friday, May 25, 2001

In contrast to the cold, dreary, damp New England weather, England greets us with warmth and sunlight. One of our hosts describes our visit as "academic tourism," which proves to be a most appropriate label.

Still jet-lagged, we make a late afternoon visit to the Institute of Education, part of the University of London federation. Now housed in a striking, but unattractive, modem building just off Russell Square, the institute was founded in 1902 to train teachers. A century later, it still fulfills this function, but has evolved into a graduate institution recognized as an international leader in the area of educational inquiry. Indeed, the institute consistently outranks all other schools of education in the United Kingdom on the governmental research assessment exercises.

Because future funding for research is linked to these ratings, one major concern of the institute is to maintain its prominent position. To do so, faculty members are under enormous pressure to produce highquality research. This stress often conflicts with provision of adequate time for reflection that is so necessary for producing outstanding scholarship. True, American academics suffer under the "publish or perish" rule, but the results of their efforts usually do not directly affect institutional funding, and they have greater freedom in setting their own research agendas and timetables.

Saturday, May 26 and Sunday, May 27, 2001

It is a bank holiday weekend, and London residents seem to have evacuated the city-perfect conditions for tourists exploring the sights of London. As a group we are guided around the Tower of London, the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. James Palace, Pall Mall, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and Harrods. Once oriented, students and staff use unrestricted passes on the London Underground to travel as thay wish. Not unlike the way visiting European students would set out to explore New England on a free weekend. But we have a great advantage because the public transportation system in the greater London metropolitan are far surpasses anything available in New England; it is clean, quick, extensive, well-marked, and runs a reasonalbe off-peak schedule.