Rachel Wenstone, NUS Vice President ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

That was the view of speakers at the latest event held by the Council for the Defence of British Universities, entitled After the Election: Alternatives in ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø policy.

In a nod to the title of the government¡¯s 2010 higher education White Paper, Students at the Heart of the System, Rachel Wenstone, vice-president (higher education) at the National Union of Students, told the event on 20 March that ¡°students are not the heart, but the hands of higher education¡±.

She said the current system was ¡°concerned with trends towards the marketisation and privatisation of universities¡± and that she did not believe ¡°this marketised model of higher education serves the best interest of students¡±.

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Ms Wenstone said students should be seen as partners rather than consumers, and added that the ¡°idea of student consumer power exists more in rhetoric than in reality¡±.

She went on to argue that ¡°the student whose views are welcomed, who is actively encouraged to contribute and who feels a sense of responsibility¡­that student is truly a partner¡±. If universities were to produce more students like this, ¡°the world would be a better place for it¡±, she said.

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Meanwhile, Andrew McGettigan, a writer and researcher on higher education, focused more on the role of academics within institutions.

He encouraged universities to follow the Oxbridge model where ¡°academics are members, not just employees¡± and have a proper democratic say in the running of the institutions.

Dr McGettigan argued that the ¡°key long-term battle¡± in improving the management of UK higher education was ¡°revivifying democratic accountability within universities¡±.