Session Five!

Collaboration vs Competition 

Our fifth session was with a lady called Oliver Hopker who is the Head of Planning and Development here at Swansea Metropolitan University. The topic of her lecture was collaboration vs competition. Accordingly, the Welsh Government is currently promoting the benefit and advantages for educational institutes, for example, such as ourselves to start collaborating with others. Olive first gave us the economic employment structure of Wales. In Wales, there are 94% micro enterprises which are essentially small businesses. Because of this, universities and other education institutes are small due to the large rate of employment in these micro enterprises. She then gave us various examples of collaborations, including purchasing as it could be more cost effective to purchase resources with other universities, and perhaps the most interesting external examiners. External examiners are staff from other Universities who teach the same or similar courses who will mark your work, likewise, staff from Swansea Metropolitan University will mark the work of students from other Universities.  Despite there being collaborations, there is also competition, especially from Universities within the same city, Swansea Metropolitan and Swansea University being an example. Universities are just as competitive; for example they all are trying to recruit students, place highly in league tables, gain funding, staff and a reputation for being a good university.

There are many benefits through collaboration. There is shared expertise, better efficiency and effectiveness, cost saving, an enhanced reputation. I felt the most interesting benefit of educational collaboration was the use of an 'external eye.' We all have most likely experienced someone questioning our actions and perhaps advising us what to do next. The same applies to Universities, an 'external eye' is someone not directly associated with the educational institute who will question certain aspects. There are also benefits through being competitive, it promotes individuals (even students) to develop a hard-working ethos and to strive to do better and improve. It also gives us the opportunity to choose which educational institute we would like to attend. 'Competition' seems to have developed from a Conservative Government.

The size of a University may also have a profound effect on how they operate. There are many benefits to being a small institute (such as ourselves.) There is low student to teacher ratios, simple structures, minimum administrative overheads, small classes, and flexibility in not only the programs but many other aspects. However, there are also some limitations, these include a small collection of resources ultimately producing limited choice. On the other hand there are benefits to being a larger University, the benefits seem to opposite to that of a smaller University's limitation. They will have a large resource base, better buying power, a wider range of courses, and perhaps more career opportunities (yet, this is debatable.) Likewise, a larger University has many limitations. These can include: difficult management, complex structures, poor teacher to student ratios, tightly defined courses and too many administrative overheads.

Olive then went on to discuss the 'delivery of higher education' The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) COLLABORATES with a company called the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW)who is responsible for all Welsh Government funding. WAG split Welsh Universities into three main areas. The North (Bangor, Aberystwyth and Glyndwr,) South East (Cardiff, Glamorgan, Newport and Cardiff Met) and South West (Swansea, Swansea Met and Trinity St David.) All these Universities offer funded Higher Education course. HEFCW, between July 2010 and February 2012 are asking for any bids for 'reward funding.'