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Managing Mass Higher Education in a Period of Austerity Michael Shattock Mass higher education in retrospect The US and European contexts Growth in participation rates associated with rising prosperity—the middle classes being the chief beneficiaries Widening participation policies not very effective— continuing economic disadvantage and the difficulty of combining public benefit and competitive models in the same system The achievements of mass higher education The educational, social and economic benefits of increasing participation in HE The UK’s ‘University Challenge’; expanding the skills base The unwillingness of European governments to pay for massification—falling unit costs, worsening ssrs, reducing proportion of GDP—inability to match the US in league tables Lack of confidence in the educational performance and standards at the lower end of HE systems The Innovation agenda—a golden age for research funding in most European countries The end of the “nice” decade Pressures on public expenditures—rising energy costs, food costs, environmental costs, social security costs including care for the elderly, security costs, underfunded pensions Demographic downturn The “post public era” of HE funding (Marginson 2007) The questions for mass HE Private contributions—fees? Continued investment in research? Widening institutional differentiation? How to sustain the widening participation agenda? Growth of private universities? International students—institutional branding? Income generation or cost containment? Autonomy and the dangers of an enhanced role of the state? Providing the right framework –the role of the state Has reform proceeded too slowly in some countries? Differentiation of mission—who does what? Retaining programmatic flexibility within institutions Preserving institutional cohesion Holding on to institutional values What shall we find when prosperity returns? Some institutions will be better placed than others to maximise opportunities; there will have been some re ordering of the league tables The state may have become more powerful in relation to HE in some countries Those European states that have not reformed their HE framework will have disadvantaged their HE institutions in international competition Will there be a larger role for the EHEA?