Research Fortnight debate: HE bill could have unintended effects

The higher education and research bill must be amended to ensure unintended consequences are kept to a minimum, academics have said.

The comments were made at a roundtable discussion on 6 December organised by HE and sister publication Research Fortnight. The debate took place in parallel to the second reading of the bill in the House of Lords.

HE editor Alison Goddard said that although the government had provided useful clarifications about some of the bill’s provisions, more needed to be done to address outstanding concerns, especially around the autonomy of the research councils and universities.