The week in higher education – 3 October 2019

“Ride-hailing giant Uber has teamed up with the Open University to offer free higher education courses to its drivers,” City AM reported on 26 September. Under a “tiered loyalty scheme”, drivers will have “access to a variety of courses depending on the number of trips they have completed as well as ratings they receive from customers”. “We are trying to reward and encourage quality trips,” said Jamie Heywood, Uber’s regional general manager for northern and eastern Europe. The scheme could be described as a commendable example of an employee benefit – were it not for the fact that Uber’s drivers are, of course, self-employed contractors. Drivers will be unable to avail themselves of one OU course: the employment law and practice module seems to have stopped running in 2016.

Government investment in England’s institutes of technology might result in that vocational route enjoying “higher demand” than university, according to the education secretary. Gavin Williamson told The Guardian that £120 million extra in funding would establish eight more institutes – run by collaborations of further education colleges, universities and employers – to join the 12 already opening this year. Ahead of his speech to the Conservative party conference on 30 September, Mr Williamson said “one of the great challenges is that people may see this route in higher demand than a conventional university route”, adding that “over the next 10 years we have got to be in a position where the quality of our technical and vocational education and training is matching that of Germany”. While UK policymakers have long envied Germany’s vocational education system (but not the more regulated labour market that facilitates that model), they might want to start keeping an eye on Germany’s increasingly competitive higher education and research sector, which is sure to receive a further shot in the arm if the UK exits the European Union’s research and student mobility programmes.

At a time when elite higher education institutions in the US want to quell the fires of controversy, step forward Harvard University president Lawrence Bacow to fan the flames. Dr Bacow apologised this week after he said that Harvard’s individual schools could no longer “own” their individual wealthy graduates, likening this to how the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution banned the ownership of African Americans, it was reported on 30 September. Not only is Harvard facing criticism over its acceptance of $9 million (£7.3 million) in donations from sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, it is probably not a good idea to refer to metaphorical slavery when your institution has a historical connection with actual slavery. Harvard has previously attempted to atone for that past, including by putting up a plaque to commemorate four people who were enslaved at the university in the 18th century.

Manufacturers selling water in plastic bottles have their share of responsibility for the world’s environmental crisis. But the billionaire owners of one such firm are attempting to do their bit to make amends, by donating $750 million (£600 million) to the California Institute of Technology for research focusing on environmental protection and climate change. The donors, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, hope that Caltech will use their gift – which they called the largest ever for sustainability research, and the second-largest to any US academic institution – for work that includes the controversial idea of removing carbon from the atmosphere. They own The Wonderful Company, with product lines that include Fiji Water and Pom Wonderful. “I don’t think purity tests are particularly helpful in the battle to tackle climate change,” said Michael Mann, a professor of meteorology at Penn State University. “We must work within the system to change the system.”

A professor who sexually abused eight male students has been spared jail. Kevin O’Gorman committed the offences while working at Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt universities between 2006 and 2014. He was convicted on 14 counts, including sexual assault and sending sexually inappropriate messages, after a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. At a hearing on 26 September, O’Gorman was sentenced to a community payback order including 240 hours of unpaid work and three years of supervision. He will be electronically tagged and subject to a curfew that will bar him from leaving his home in East Dunbartonshire between 7pm and 7am for six months. Sheriff Alistair Noble told O’Gorman that he had “sought to gratify your own sexual interests” while tutoring students. Both Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde have appointed a Queen’s Counsel to investigate their handling of the case.