Warwick announces academic partnership with Queen Mary

In what the _Guardian_ has described as the closest alliances yet between two universities, from the start of the next academic year Warwick and Queen Mary, University of London will form a new partnership which will involve shared lectures, research and cultural festivals. Academics from both institutions will teach each other’s undergraduates from their English, History and Computer Science departments.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift described Warwick as a globally connected University which chose to form close partnerships with “a select group of research-heavy institutions that exist in many locations, do research in many locations, and which produce students who see themselves as global citizens” in order to make a real impact on global issues and deliver the best research and teaching experience for its staff and students.

The initial areas of research include: Ethnicity and Mental Health in Post-War Britain; Discrete Mathematics; Rewiring the Renaissance, and Functional Molecular Materials. Eight Postdoctoral Research Fellowships are planned with one Fellow at each university based in each of the four areas. The focus will be on areas of existing research excellence in both institutions and a budget will support collaborative activities.

The universities point out that students will be taught by an even broader range of leading academics, and more degree programmes are likely to be taught together in the future. Planned joint cultural and literary events include a book festival later this year at Warwick and a literary festival at Queen Mary’s next year.

Second-year History student at Warwick, Robert Hickman, commented: “I think having a fresh set of lecturers each with their select fields of research will bring a new perspective to the course and give a broader option of choice and therefore spheres of interest”.

Neither geographical proximity nor a search for economies featured in Warwick’s agenda according to Thrift, who explained that partnerships were arranged “between autonomous institutions that are academically excellent, share Warwick’s organisational and academic ethos and which help create a truly global network”.

Noting the substantial strength of the universities, both with robust records as providers of high quality education to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, he argued that collaborations of this kind would be increasingly important “as we seek to collectively discharge our responsibilities to society at large.”

However, it was essential to “recognise a shared ethos and have a mutual understanding of what may be achieved together, in both education and research, by combining talent and resources in selected areas.”

Whilst the need to expand equal opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds in both the institutions’ local areas was prioritised, Queen Mary’s principal, Professor Simon Gaskell, also identified the increase in tuition fees and the “high level of uncertainty” caused by the reduction in public funding as another factor underpinning the alliance. Both universities will charge the maximum fees from September but have denied that the partnership will lead to a merger as the two will maintain academic rivalry.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England recently noted how institutions were having to reconsider their fundamental role, including partnerships as they adapted to change. Professor Simon Gaskell, Principal of Queen Mary, believed the partnership would help define the future of universities in the UK and beyond.

Indeed Warwick has recently announced partnerships with Monash University in Melbourne, Australia that will clearly establish both as “globally connected Universities” and with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LTSM) to “translate into cost-effective, affordable and scalable interventions for the world’s poorest populations” according to the University.

Warwick and Queen Mary intend their partnership to serve a much wider community both nationally and internationally as well as ensure efficient and effective use of resources according to Gaskell.

The University and College Union’s General Secretary, Sally Hunt agrees that universities are right to be concerned by reductions in higher education funding. Speaking to the _Boar_, the Union’s press officer, Dan Ashley, also supported cooperative working but also cautioned that the interests of students and staff need to be protected from “the heaping of more work on already hard pressed
staff.”