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

2. 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
Dan Cook

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. ‘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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 13 December 2013
Survey 1

13. 13 December 2013

14. 13 December 2013
Survey 3

15. 27 December 2018

16. 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

17. 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?

18. 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

19. 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

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