UPDATE
Sarah AB adds. The AHRC has refuted the report and issued a statement here.
Today’s Observer includes a worrying report suggesting that the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) was forced to include the idea of the ‘Big Society’ as one of its research priorities in order to secure its funding from cuts.
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will spend a “significant” amount of its funding on the prime minister’s vision for the country, after a government “clarification” of the Haldane principle – a convention that for 90 years has protected the right of academics to decide where research funds should be spent.
Under the revised principle, research bodies must work to the government’s national objectives, although the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said that ministers will not meddle in individual projects.
There’s still some uncertainty about the full details of the negotiation and I’ll add this fair (and nicely wry) comment from the PhD life blog:
There seems to be some debate between academics and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as to whether or not this prioritisation was a voluntary move, but if the AHRC was strong-armed into this position then it is a very worrying development.
This being said, regardless of one’s political beliefs, if the ‘big society’ model is going to become the dominant way in which communities encounter the arts and humanities then it is clearly very important that the scheme is properly researched.
Whether or not the research findings will please the government is another matter entirely…
This kind of state interference in academia is something one might expect from Hungary or from some Communist regime rather than the present Government. As Sunder Kutwala notes, it is ironic (if true) that the Government is resorting to such very statist means to promote its anti-statist agenda.
Hat Tip: Sunder Kutwala
