Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs The Scottish Tertiary Education Advisory Council : a case study in educational policy-making Thesis How to cite: Kirk, Gordon (1998). The Scottish Tertiary Education Advisory Council : a case study in educational policy- making. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 1997 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000e162 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk THE SCOTTISH TERTIARY EDUCATION ADVISORY COUNCIL: A CASE STUDY IN EDUCATIONAL POLICY-MAKING GORDON KIRK THE SCOTTISH TERTIARY EDUCATION ADVISORY COUNCIL: A CASE STUDY IN EDUCATIONAL POLICY-MAKING GORDON KIRK MA (University of Glasgow) MEd (University of Glasgow) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Educational Policy and Management The School of Education, The Open University SEPTEMBER 1997 CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations ii CHAPTER! Rationale and Analytical Framework CHAPTER 2 The Genesis of STEAC 27 CHAPTER 3 Written and Oral Evidence 73 CHAPTER 4 STEAC Deliberations and Recommendations 115 CHAPTER 5 The Response to the STEAC Report 174 CHAPTER 6 Government Action and its Aftennath 224 CHAPTER 7 STEAC and Models of the Policy-making Process 260 Appendices I Membership of the Scottish Tertiary Education Advisory Council 324 II Terms of Reference of the Scottish Tertiary Education Advisory Council 325 III Programme of Meetings o/the Scottish Tertiary Education Advisory Council 326 IV Chronology of the STEAC Process 327 Bibliography 328 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The undertaking and completion of this thesis depended on the co-operation and support of very many people and I gladly and gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness here, making special mention of those whose assistance was of a direct and tangible kind. The Board of Governors of Moray House Institute of Education have, for many years, offered financial support to members of staff seeking to extend their academic and professional qualifications. I am one of very many grateful beneficiaries of that forward-looking policy. The Scottish Office kindly permitted me access to the official STEAC files, and Alistair Weathers ton and Lorna Brownlee facilitated that access. My supervisors, Dr Bob Glaister of the Open University and Dr Bob Bell, formerly of the Open University, combined to ensure that I was launched on a researchable and challenging project, provided robust but helpful criticism of my work at all stages, and were a source of great encouragement, especially at those times when the demands of the principalship of Moray House made the pursuit of scholarship almost impossible. Lindsay Paterson. Professor of Educational Policy at Moray House, stimulated wider reading and deeper reflection. My colleagues in the Moray House Library and Information Centre. particularly Hazel Robertson and David Fairgrieve, cheerfully met my frequent requests for help and tracked down many references for me. Mrs Alice Hamilton, Personal Assistant to the Principal, has been an immensely loyal and committed colleague, who has supported the project in a host of ways and could not possibly have been more helpful. Mrs Mary Swinton typed and retyped the thesis through umpteen transformations with that remarkable blend of skill. efficiency, and forbearance upon which I have come to depend. Finally, I should like to express my gratitude to my wife, Jane, and our children, Heather and Graham, but lowe them more than words could ever convey. I dedicate the thesis to all three, with deep affection. and apologies for what. I fear, is yet another late arrival. i THE SCOTTISH TERTIARY EDUCATION ADVISORY COUNCIL: A CASE STUDY IN EDUCATIONAL POLICY ·MAKING Gordon Kirk PhD THESIS: ABSTRACT The study has two central purposes: firstly, to undertake the first comprehensive analysis of a particular policy-making process, the Scottish Tertiary Education Advisory Council's work in the mid '80s on the future strategy of higher education in Scotland; and, secondly, to use the STEAC process as a case study to test the validity of three models of the policy-making process. Using the minutes and papers of the STEAC itself, the Scottish Office file on STEAC, institutional archive materials, contemporary press coverage, and official documents, the study examines the STEAC process from its inception to its culmination in ministerial decisions. It establishes the educational and political matrix from which the STEAC sprang, and it analyses the evidence submitted, the transactions of the Council itself, the public and professional reaction to the Council's recommendations, the government's subsequent legislative action, and its aftennath. Through that analytical sequence, the interplay of forces and the key determinants of policy are identified and an assessment made of the strategic significance of STEAC in the development of higher education in Scotland. The STEAC process, given its transparency and the fullness of its evidential base, is taken to be an appropriate context against which to test the validity of three models of the policy-making process: the policy community, incrementalism, and the Humes "revised model". It is concluded that the established notion of a homogeneous policy community, as an elitist alliance in collusion with government, is suspect; that incrementalism should give way to an alternative model for which the term "prudentialism" is proposed; and that, while the Humes model acknowledges the full complexity of social phenomena, its very diffuseness makes it insufficient by itself as a model for interpreting the policy-making process in education. ABBREVIATIONS ABRC Advisory Board for the Research Councils ADES Association of Directors of Education in Scotland ALL~S Association of Lecturers in Colleges of Education in Scotland ALSCI Association of Lecturers in Scottish Central Institutions AUT Association of University Teachers CAG Comptroller and Auditor General CCC Consultative Committee on the Curriculum CDP Committee of Directors of Polytechnics CNAA Council for National Academic Awards COPADOCI Committee of Principals and Directors of Central Institutions COSLA Convention of Scottish Local Authorities CVCP Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals DCPE Dunfermline College of Physical Education DES Department of Education and Science EIS Educational Institute of Scotland GTC General Teaching Council for Scotland HEI Higher Education Institution HMI Her Majesty's Inspectorate NAB National Advisory Body NAS/UWf National Association of School Teachers/Union of Women Teachers NUS National Union of Students PAC Public Accounts Committee PCFC Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council PESTS Principals of East of Scotland Tertiary Sector RGIT Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology SCE Scottish Certificate of Education ii SCOVACf Scottish Council for the Validation of Courses for Teachers SCRE Scottish Council for Research in Education SCSU Standing Committee of Scottish Universities SED Scottish Education Deparunent SHEFC Scottish Higher Education Funding Council SIT Scottish Institute of Technology SSPE Scottish School of Physical Education SSTA Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association STUC Scottish Trades Union Congress UFC Universities Funding Council UGC University Grants Committee WAB Welsh Advisory Body iii CHAPTER I: RATIONALE AND ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK Introduction The various forms of enquiry into the social condition, all of them rooted in the impulse to understand, issue in two basic kinds of achievement. Firstly, when they involve the analysis of an aspect of the social world that has hitherto remained unexamined they bring it within the scope of what is known, distilling and systematising the myriad transactions of social and institutional experience into a thesis that contributes to the enlargement of the social database. Secondly, these forms of enquiry entail a reappraisal of what is known and established and, by adducing new evidence or applying a novel perspective, either confmn the standard explanation or offer a revised interpretation. In the former case, territory on the map of knowledge that was previously unexplored is charted. In the latter, some of the lines on the map are more securely delineated or perhaps are redrawn. The traveller is indebted to both types of exploration. The present study seeks to meet these twin desiderata. Focusing on the work of the Scottish Tertiary Education Advisory Council (STEAC) (1) on future strategy for higher education in Scotland in the mid-1980s, it undertakes, for the flrst time, a detailed analysis of this major piece of policy-making, tracing the process from the social and educational matrix from which the STEAC sprang to the final ministerial decision on its recommendations, and its aftermath. It then uses the STEAC process as a case study to test the validity of some widely accepted models of educational policy-making. STEAC as a Field of Enquiry While the pursuit of knowledge and understanding and the search for explanation in any domain are intrinsically valuable, any particular investigation stands in need of further justification.