Co-operative university seminar
http://josswinn.org/2013/12/co-operative-university-seminar/

5.30-8.15pm

c.30 attendees


Stephen Yeo:
Start and finish with ICA Statement
1. Students substantively ‘on the move’ about economics. Manchester
questions.
2. Idea of university at stake - being questioned. Open. ‘Openness’ in ICA
statement and in online learning. MOOC, sociality. Mutual improvement
society of 19th c.
3. Managerial aggression in HE. ‘Emperors do need undressing’. Managing
institutions requires hard work from academics.
4. What is education for? Sorting and grading class system. Gove’s
rhetoric calling for an answer. Liberalism can radicalise people. 'Play
with freedom and liberalism.’
5. Universities are like groups of SMEs. Academic tribes. Autonomy of
small unites. Campus ripe and ready for turning SMEs to CMEs.
6. Current problems need mutual relations between disciplines.
7. Knowledge is now thought of as ‘material’ and mutual e.g. Knowledge
economy. Yes, so let’s develop this to co-operative benefit.
8. 1995 ICA statement of Identity. Deep tradition of co-operativism. Akin
to other ‘ism' traditions. Ethic values translated into institutional
values. Study this statement from academic/university standpoint.
9. Staff and students will not be stable, long-term stakeholders. Who will
be the stakeholders among local authorities?
10. 'Regional, comprehensive university’. Local cultural organisations as
corporate members of university. What would such a university look like?
Degree-awarding status? Why so obsessed with achieving this? Open and
voluntary comprehensive university wouldn’t worry about it. Teaching for
something more like the CNAA used to be. Why not own our own degree
awarding body?
11. Idea of university. How do we not become 'enemies of the open
society/freedom’. How do we maximise difference? Holyoak, Mackintyre.
Multiplying difference while united in objective.
12. Track and disseminate examples. Gave 3 Lincoln examples: Lincoln
Student Union. Social Science Centre, Learning Landscapes project -
openness, modernity. Gary’s work useful here?

Mervyn Wilson:
From co-operative schools to co-operative universities?

* About developing and articulating ideas for a co-operative alternative.
* Who permitted the give-away of our schools? Our universities? Learning
lessons from co-op schools initiative
* 2003 Co-operation and learning.
* 700 co-op UK schools by January 2014. 70? free schools!
* Almost street-fighting in the streets over academies vs. co-ops.
* Draw from international experience
* Draft report on contribution of coops overcoming the crisis EU 2013.
People are actively looking for alternatives that are more resilient. Draw
from these examples and arguments.
* Need to: more research into co-ops, multi-disciplinary, not just
history. More evolutionary biologists that think about coops than
economists. Research into practice of operation, learning to teaching and
learning/co-operation.
* Welcome rich diversity of coop models of universities. Alternatives to
corporatisation of universities and university services.
* Have confidence in co-operative possibilities.Don’t surrender to
neo-liberal agenda.
* Mondragon, Florida university in Valencia in Spain. Portugal? FE sector?

Dan Cook:

* See slides. http://coopuni.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/co-operative-university-presentation-20131213-v2.pptx
* Summary of report. E.g.
http://josswinn.org/2013/12/realising-the-co-operative-university/
* ICA statement has practical obligations.
* A university must have min 1000 students, etc.
* Lots of possible forms of the co-operative university
* College of Law cost £200m to by > University of Law. Sharks are
circling. Pearson, etc.
* Regulated activity leads to legal responsibility
* Pre 1992 uni: Royal Charter; post-1992: HE Corporation. Note the
differences. Post 92 HEIs need legal form to be changed.
* Universities don’t really have owners. Charities. Governing body.
* Isn’t a ‘university system’ in the UK. Only a problem of the last 20
years.
* A co-op law (forthcoming) isn’t necessarily a good thing.
* University form is most like BAE Systems
* Co-operation or collaboration? Be careful of agenda to ‘collaborate’
* Leadership Foundation for Higher Education LFHE. Haslam paper on
leadership.
* Co-operative values and academic values. Similarities?
* What, culturally, in coop uni do we do that is truly co-operative?
* Real work is in defining what a co-op university is.
* What about starting from other forms, such as co-op academic publishing
house?

Q&A

Rebecca Boden/Roehampton:

* Mondragon: No managers. No role for anyone to tell someone else what to
do.
* ‘self-owning organisations’ like DK.
* Important distinction is between ownership and control. Control is most
important.
* Mondragon is defiantly capitalist. ‘Hard-nosed business people’.
* Mondragon members don’t own their own buildings. The largest Mondragon
coop owns it. The community owns the buildings. Important, social assets.
* Socially embedded university rather than profit-making university.
‘Trust university’ better? John Lewis model? Like schools. Academics
shouldn’t own the university.

Yeo:
* Schools coop model is much more like the trust model
* Democracy as a strategic mantra
* Capitalist or not is an accounting matter. Profit or loss

Wilson:
* Separate the assets from the governance

Cook:
* Must co-op universities make a surplus/profit?

Wilson:
* Co-op schools is a viral idea. Discussion is critical. Have the ideas to
propose at the right time.
* Form follows content

Cook:
* Need a register of co-operative practice already happening around the
world

Scottish Coop Ed Trust:
* Worker coop movement in UK couldn’t support a coop uni
* Has to be a demand for coop university
* Purpose of education not economic
* Students for Co-operation group

Fielding:
* 1970s pre-figurative practice in Comprehensive system. Learn lessons
from past examples.
* Understand and draw on the depth of our own radical histories

Yeo:
* NUS is crucial to this
* Credit-based system

Coop College Governor:
* Co-operative business school?

Cook:
* Start with a cooperative learning and teaching strategy (SasP??)

Yeo:
* Huge energy at meeting
* Immense specific gravity of SSC, etc.
* Aggregation of practice more powerful than enunciation of policy