Clumsy Brexit is threat to university, says O’Shea

Above his desk in his elegant Old College office is an oil portrait of the poet Hugh MacDiarmid lounging in an armchair. “Isn’t he tremendous?” says Sir Tim. “I don’t think I could manage to be as relaxed as that.”

Actually, he comes pretty close.

Having announced that he will retire next summer, Sir Tim might be expected to kick back a little, but given the political challenges assailing Scotland’s universities this seems unlikely.

There are two main issues to wrestle with before he leaves.

One is Brexit, which he believes poses a threat to Edinburgh’s ability to attract the best students and staff from around the world, and also its joint research ventures with continental European universities.

“A hard Brexit done clumsily or thoughtlessly could be very, very damaging,” he says. “But there is no reason, in principle, why it should be damaging. These things can be thought through.”

May it be necessary for Scotland to have an individual deal, either within or outside the UK, to safeguard the university’s interests?

“That would be one route, for Scotland to have a bespoke deal,” he says. “Jack McConnell [Labour first minister from 2001-07] introduced the post-study work visas which applied only in Scotland.

“They worked very well. It was a shame we lost them. So a bespoke arrangement could certainly work, but it could also work through Westminster.

“My stewardship concern has got to be that the University of Edinburgh has highly talented international students, international staff, and engages in very important collaborative research.”

If the only prospect of securing that looked to be an independent Scotland that was a full member of the EU, might that be in the best interests of the university?

Sir Tim is not playing. “The University of Edinburgh, in terms of the independence question, is determinedly neutral,” he says, a little mechanically. “With regard to ameliorating Brexit, we were opposed to Brexit and want to encourage politicians of every description to ameliorate it.”

May the independence stance have to be revisited if circumstances require it? “Well,” he says, choosing his words with care, “anything could always be revisited.”

The other major political challenge facing Scottish universities is the SNP government’s plans to close the attainment gap between the rich and the poor.

This is a subject close to his heart. “I’m completely supportive of all initiatives that lead to wider participation. Myself, I came from a background with very limited resources, I spent 19 years at the Open University and five years running Birkbeck [University of London], both of which are access institutions. If I was a stick of rock it would say ‘access to higher education’.”

Press him further, however, and it becomes clear that while he supports the goals of the SNP government’s education policy, it does not necessarily mean he will endorse the methods.

He is particularly wary of measures that reduce the university’s ability to make decisions for itself about which students gain entry.

“I think one has to be as sophisticated as possible in measuring the attainment gap, and what are the appropriate markers? There isn’t a single simple number that says: high score in this means advantaged, a low score means disadvantaged.”

The SNP manifesto for the Holyrood election this year promised that “by 2030, students from the 20 per cent most deprived areas make up 20 per cent of higher education entrants”.

Sir Tim thinks that someone’s postcode is not a good enough indicator of whether they need extra help.

“If you just use it as your proxy, location doesn’t help,” he says. “Because you have to ask questions. Obviously you ask about resources but you also ask about the environment.

“Is it a family environment, with parents who have been to university? Or is it a care environment? Or is it a family environment with what might be a negative point of view about higher education?”

He rejects the idea that a “mechanical formula” can be used to decide what grades less advantaged young people need to gain entry.

Individual heads of university departments, he says, should have a say in how much leeway is allowed.

“You’ve got to rely on the specialists to ask the question: what are the minimum grades necessary for a reasonable prediction of success? What is the additional support that might be necessary?

“I don’t see how that can be imposed as a formula from the outside. I think that would vary quite a lot.

“If you were, say, looking at entry to mathematics you might have a very different point of view than if you were looking at entry to history. So I think a mechanical formula doesn’t sound plausible to me.”

Despite this reticence, Sir Tim is proud of the work Edinburgh has done in widening participation through summer schools, mentoring and bursaries.

Under his leadership, Edinburgh has unquestionably secured its position as one of the world’s great universities. In the latest QS World Rankings, Edinburgh is 19th, in the Shanghai Rankings it is 41st, in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings it is 24th.

Yet some of the principal’s academic staff grumble about his focus on global deal-making and his determination to match the financial clout of the likes of Harvard and Cambridge.

Some feel the university has lost a bit of its soul and something of its distinctive Scottish character in its dash for international cash and prestige.

Sure enough, when asked what he will be most proud of when he eventually comes to leave, he has an immediate answer: “The internationalisation of the university.”

“In 2002, when I started, 19 per cent of our students came from outside the UK. And I was interested in that so I asked myself, what was the proportion in 1900, and it turned out to be identical at 19 per cent.

“So I was very keen to improve that position and we are now at 43 per cent, so I would be proud of that.”

Is there a trade-off between being a great international university and a great Scottish university? Last week research suggested it was easier for a young person from England to get into a Scottish university than it was for a Scot.

Sir Tim bristles a little. He replies: “I don’t think so. I think a feature of being a great Scottish university is the international aspect. When Edinburgh was set up in 1583 it took its curriculum from Paris, that is why there is so much philosophy. It then became much more influenced by Utrecht in Holland, that’s where the empirical medicine came from.

“We recruited academic staff from the continent of Europe. In the late 18th century, 10 per cent of our students were from the United States. So this isn’t a new thing. For me it is part of the Scottish identity.”

Nevertheless, isn’t the proportion of students who are Scottish much smaller? “Yes,” he says, “but the absolute number is higher.”

For his retirement Sir Tim, 67, plans to grow vegetables at his country cottage in Co Kilkenny, in southeast Ireland.

And he plans a new hobby.

“I’d love to learn to sing,” he says. “Burns and Irish folk songs, that kind of thing.”

To prove a point to the nuns from his primary school?

“No, no, no,” he says. “Just for the personal pleasure of it.”

QUICKFIRE

What book is on your bedside table? Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell. I’ve read it a number of times and the reason I’m reading it again is because of my involvement in the CEO Sleepout to raise money for Social Bite.

New Town or Old Town? New Town. I like the Georgian architecture and in particular I like horizontal lines rather than vertical lines.

Oxford or Cambridge? Cambridge. For a while I was chief scientific adviser to an industrial lab in Cambridge and I enjoyed walking through the college gardens.

Microsoft or Apple? Apple, obviously, for design and aesthetics.

What’s the best piece of advice you have for your successor? Keep them happy.