The critique of English policy by Bahram Bekhradnia, the outgoing director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, was delivered in his annual lecture last night, part of a wider argument that UK universities should ¡°stop saying we are punching above our weight¡±.

The speech will have been of interest to Nick Hillman, a key figure in the creation of England¡¯s new system as special adviser to universities and science minister David Willetts. Mr Hillman takes over at Hepi as Mr Bekhradnia¡¯s successor in January.

Mr Bekhradnia also said there had been little progress in changing the social hierarchy among universities.

¡°That was illustrated for me by a story told by my daughter Lizzie who was at Manchester University, and attended a rugby match between Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan,¡± he told his audience at the Royal Geographical Society in London.

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¡°At one point during the match the Manchester University (posh) students turned en masse to face the Manchester Met students (not posh) and chanted in unison ¡®your dad works for my dad¡¯!¡±

Mr Bekhradnia posed the question: ¡°Do we have a world leading HE system?¡± He argued that perceptions that the UK has the second-best system in the world after the US were based on world university rankings ¨C which he said look mainly at research performance.

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He highlighted factors such as postgraduate provision and research ¡°and indeed whole departments¡± being ¡°kept afloat by international students and staff¡±, as well as variability in degree standards and the amount of work required to gain a degree at different universities.

¡°Certainly there is no room for complacency and I really hope that we will stop saying that we are punching above our weight,¡± he said.

Another key factor, Mr Bekhradnia argued, was the government¡¯s attempt to create a market in English higher education, when the need for government to control supply of students and price meant a true market ¡°cannot exist¡±.

He warned of consequences from the government¡¯s uncertainty over estimates on the resource accounting and budgeting charge ¨C the portion of loans that will never be repaid by graduates.

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Mr Bekhradnia noted that since the ?9,000 fee system was originally set out, ¡°the government has revised its estimate of the cost from 30 per cent to 35 per cent, and indeed at a recent conference David Willetts admitted that it could rise to 40 per cent¡±.

A 10 per cent increase would mean an overspend of ?1 billion per year, Mr Bekhradnia said.

¡°Our flirtation with a market-based approach has led us into a terrible muddle, unmatched anywhere in the world,¡± Mr Bekhradnia said. ¡°The present arrangements are philosophically, economically and socially untenable, and will not persist.?They will change, I confidently predict.¡±

john.morgan@tsleducation.com