Higher education in the UK has turned from "a disaster to a nightmare" according to the outgoing president of Harvard, Neil Rudenstine. In a scathingly frank assessment to a postgraduate seminar, he said that standards at Oxford, Cambridge and other universities, which were once role models and the envy of all elites, had not only slipped but were in "consistent and persistent deterioration" because of inadequate funding.
"At Cambridge, for example, they haven't made a discovery since Watson and Crick discovered DNA back in the 50s. Why? Scientists there at the Cavendish laboratory have a budget of $16m. That wouldn't keep our history department going. The sad reality is that in Britain even Oxbridge is suffering because of the lack of resources and private sector involvement. There is just too little all the way round."
As the man credited with making Harvard the world's wealthiest school - the university's $19bn endowment exceeds the physical assets of McDonald's and the GDP of most states - Rudenstine said he had watched the decline with dismay. Across Europe, but especially in Britain, research facilities were egregious. Funds had not matched growing student intakes. And, even worse, morale was withering. Britain might have some world-class academics, he said. But unless there were vast injections of cash, the future of the British academy looked bleak indeed.
"If you look at the trajectory of Oxbridge, it's a disaster, a nightmare," the outgoing president sighed. The furore over Laura Spence might have been "utter nonsense, much overblown by the media". But, he added, it was also easy to see why growing numbers of British students were opting for a top-notch US education as Spence had done. This year the New England college has had record numbers of UK applicants, lured by the university's broad education and generous needs-blind admissions policies (70% of the student body receives aid). "Some," said Fred Jewett, who handles British admissions, "have indicated directly that Laura played a role in their decision to apply. We're very pleased with the standard of the entries. They're very high."
Harvard's hoard is not only enticing students. Joining the cast of celebrity academics (the linguist-philosopher George Steiner joins the faculty this September) is an ever-growing pool of younger professors weary of British bureaucracy, including the time-consuming research assessment exercises and the other rigours of "accountability". "What's worse is that the RAE has demonstrably led to people producing short, lightweight books for evaluation rather than larger works of scholarship," says Harvard's history department chair David Blackbourn, who previously taught at Jesus College, Cambridge.
The US, say the English emigres, now not only offers better working conditions and salaries (a tenured Harvard professor earns around £80,000) but, more importantly, provides research resources that will ultimately facilitate their careers (with five miles of stacks, Harvard has the biggest library system in the world).
"British universities have been subjected to a monolithic and very poor imitation of American evaluation and management models," says Michael Herzfeld, Harvard's eminent British-born anthropologist who was lured to America in the 80s. "I am often struck by how depressed and dispirited my British colleagues now seem. It's extraordinary that British scholars have done so well under conditions that people in poorer countries might find distressing."
America's culture of capitalism, and its corporatisation of higher education, is not without its critics. Harvard's own fundraising methods - particularly its dependency on deep-pocketed donors rewarding their alma mater - pander to vanity. But, increasingly, British academics are finding that it is in America that they can think big.
Helena Smith is finishing a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University
Click for related articles: 170 Guildhalls an investigation of UK universities' assets, attack on Oxbridge disparity, THES 13&20/7/01; Eviscerating Oxford The Spectator, 14/7/01 includes spin-off in The Times with top-ten table of UK universities' assets; Oxbridge, home of slow learners The Times 17/7/01.