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The impact agenda risks causing universities to neglect their core mission to create ¡°intelligent citizens¡±, the former Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.

In an article in this week¡¯s Times Higher Education, Rowan Williams, who now has the title Lord Williams of Oystermouth, says the most important ¡°bit of impact¡± universities can have is to educate people who will ¡°ask constructively critical questions in public life¡±.

But he told THE that the emphasis of research funders on ¡°a very narrow band of research impact¡± led universities to prioritise its generation, leading to ¡°a particularly functionalist and short-term perspective in both research and teaching¡±.

Lord Williams, who became master of Magdalene College, Cambridge after stepping down as archbishop at the end of 2012, said that it was ¡°legitimate¡± for funders to ask for evidence of impact on ¡°a community¡¯s life¡±. But most working academics found the current metrics by which impact was assessed ¡°difficult to live with because they assume a very short-term frame and a measure that might apply in some areas doesn¡¯t easily apply in others¡±. He said universities should be permitted to follow museums and galleries in focusing their pursuit of impact on ¡°really making a difference in the community, opening up resources to people, allowing them to expand their own awareness and critical skills and making complex issues accessible¡±.

He also believed that all university teaching, regardless of subject, should involve more than conveying ¡°a little package of skills¡±. It should also be about giving students ¡°a set of good questions they might want to be asking¡±, so that they can ¡°own what they are doing¡± in the workplace and ¡°see how innovation is possible¡±. He said the University of South Wales, of which he was inaugurated as chancellor this week, was a good example of an institution with ¡°a really serious footprint in the community¡±. He hoped to be part of discussions about the future ¡°vision¡± of the university, created last year from the merger of the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wales, Newport.

¡°I have the day job, but this is a region and a subject I care very deeply about,¡± the former Archbishop of Wales said.

paul.jump@tsleducation.com