Realising the Co-operative University? 13 December 2013 Realising the Co-operative University? Barriers and enablers Dan Cook

Student on the MBA in Higher Education Management at the IoE 2011-2013 13 December 2013 About me School Manager for the Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol Student on the MBA in Higher Education Management at the IoE 2011-2013 Dan Cook

What is a Co-operative University? 13 December 2013 What is a Co-operative University? CO-OPERATIVE Conforms to the ICA Cooperative Identity Statement Owned by its members UNIVERSITY Awards degrees Has students Can use University title Detailed requirements imply significant resources Dan Cook

Co-operative University: why bother? 13 December 2013 Co-operative University: why bother? Disenfranchisement / Alienation of academic labour (casualization, instrumentalism, performativity, managerialism) Challenge to notion of student as consumer Market volatility, competition, differentiation Alignment of values with governance  perhaps benefits performance & bottom line Dan Cook

13 December 2013 Scope of project Factors acting as barriers or enablers to the establishment of a Co-operative University Gathering information about how co-operation might be formalised in the HE sector in England Provide a basis for further practical and academic work on co-operation in Higher Education Consultancy project: about 300 hours effort Dan Cook

‘Embedding’ with the Co-operative College for a week 13 December 2013 Methods Literature search ‘Embedding’ with the Co-operative College for a week Interviews and correspondence with Co-op and HE sector figures Online survey – 150 respondents Dan Cook

13 December 2013 Legal ‘Co-operative’ requires adherence to the ICA Co-operative Identity Statement ‘University’ title & degree-awarding powers require 4 years of delivering degree-level courses, 1,000 students mostly on full-time degrees, QAA inspection Responsibilities around regulated activity (international student recruitment) and accepting state money Dan Cook

Investment opportunity – new or second-hand Grow-your-own university 13 December 2013 Financial Investment opportunity – new or second-hand Grow-your-own university Corporate form affects ability to raise finance and protection of assets – multiple choices Dan Cook

13 December 2013 Governance Member-controlled Board could contravene CUC guidelines  but can we ‘redefine the insider’? Who are the members and what is their stake?: Staff & (probably) Students; but also Employers? Alumni? Feeder Schools? Other stakeholders? General public? Dan Cook

Co-operative practices 13 December 2013 Co-operative practices Institutions in UK HE: UCAS, HESA, UMAL, QAA Collaborative academic practice: learned societies, external examining, open access to research… Co-operative studies in UK Universities: research at OU, Cardiff, part of management programme at Exeter… Overseas examples: Mondragon, but also many universities offering ‘co-operative education’ Culture – LFHE (Haslam) paper on academic leadership cites broadly co-operative values Dan Cook

Co-operative values are (broadly) academic values: 13 December 2013 Culture Co-operative values are (broadly) academic values: self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity Preferences of current doctoral students broadly in favour of co-operative values in HE

13 December 2013 Survey 1

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27 December 2018

Some potential advantages 13 December 2013 Some potential advantages Economic involvement of membership could redefine debates over the student as consumer and managerialism Co-operative values in leadership resonate with those promoted by the LFHE (which are based on research) Conceptual model places education at the heart of the business model Co-operative education – what employers want, how learning is best promoted, good practice Co-operative research: impactful, engaged, collective effort Dan Cook

Designing the Co-operative University 27 December 2018 Designing the Co-operative University What is distinctive about it? Who are the members? What is the business plan?

13 December 2013 Ideas, myths and dreams A co-operative university behaves in a co-operative fashion: many universities already work in co-operative ways What is required is less a change of practices than a change of expectations and beliefs The idea is of a university as a knowledge and learning commons accessible freely and fairly to everyone The myth is of Mondragon University, democratic and self-reliant, and of the solidarity of the medieval scholars who set up the first European universities. The dream is of the ecological university, doing work that extends the bounds of knowledge and possibility, while exhibiting a deep care of responsibility towards its members, publics and the whole world Dan Cook

Coda – where can we see change right now? 13 December 2013 Coda – where can we see change right now? Academic publishing: open access green Student co-ops: housing, NUS statement, Lincoln Experiments in HE: SSC Lincoln, New University Co-op Canada, Free University Liverpool, Occupy University, Tent City University… Dan Cook

d.j.cook@bristol.ac.uk 0117 3314493 http://coopuni.wordpress.com/ 13 December 2013 Contact / find out more d.j.cook@bristol.ac.uk 0117 3314493 http://coopuni.wordpress.com/ Dan Cook