Universities and their patrons

This month we read of students and alumni of the University of Oxford protesting the opening of a new Earth Sciences laboratory funded by the oil company Shell. And this is by no means the only instance in which private corporations are supporting academic research.

At the University of Manchester BP is funding a new multi-million pound energy research centre, and in 2003 the research group Corporate Watch published a report on the oil industry and university funding that identified partnerships between oil companies and Cambridge, Aberdeen, Imperial College London, Herriot-Watt and Dundee universities. In 2000 Nottingham University faced a storm of protest over its decision to accept £3.8 million from British American Tobacco, while at Oxford Rupert Murdoch funds a Chair in Language and Communication.

These universities all maintain that accepting this money brings with it no external conditions, and that scholars funded by such endowments retain full academic freedom and independence (see for example Nottingham University’s memorandum of understanding with British American Tobacco).

But it is not coincidental that this growth in the corporate backing of university research comes at a time when the government is making historic cuts to its funding of higher education. To survive the stormy seas of shifting government regulation and global competition, universities are being forced to look for new patrons.

Alumni relations

In the face of limited financial resources, universities across the world are increasingly seeking new ways of cultivating the loyalties – and the donations – of their alumni. By employing social media, offering ongoing careers services, organising social events, and even selling coffins, universities hope to build a relationship with their students that will last a lifetime.

But how far are universities really prepared to go? The relationship between Dalhousie University and its alumni in the nineteenth century points to an intimate embrace that many of today’s vice-chancellors might be less than willing to countenance … read the rest of this post at guardian.co.uk