British Academy responds to Government's Higher Education White Paper

Responding to the publication of the Government's White Paper Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, Alun Evans, Chief Executive of the British Academy, said:

"The Academy welcomes the White Paper’s commitment to ensure protection for the dual support system within the new framework it proposes to create. Dual support has served the UK well and remains critical to the excellence of the UK’s higher education and research sector. It is especially vital for humanities and social science research.

“We are therefore pleased to see that the Government has committed to the autonomy of Research England in delivering Quality Related funding within the new UK Research and Innovation council (UKRI), building on the proposals set out in the Nurse Review of the Research Councils.

"In the humanities and social sciences the UK's higher education sector delivers excellent teaching and research alongside each other that are internationally recognised for their world-leading quality.”

The British Academy will seek to work closely with Government to ensure the evolution of the Teaching Excellence Framework is sensitive to disciplinary differences and to the links between excellent teaching and excellent research. It recently commissioned a series of case studies on teaching excellence in the humanities and social sciences.