Liz Kendall’s appointment as UK science secretary could lead to a much-needed reset in universities’ strained relationship with government after Peter Kyle’s limited engagement on science and research issues, experts have suggested.
The arrival of Kendall from the Department for Work and Pensions in the recent?Cabinet reshuffle?has raised hopes that the sector might have?a more sympathetic?ear?in the?new secretary of state for science, following what some saw as Kyle’s confrontational approach to academia.
That hostility culminated in Kyle’s speech at Universities UK’s annual conference last week, when he challenged vice-chancellors to use the “colossal resource” of their institutions and “leadership skills” to “inspire the change that your region...might need” – a rebuke that went down badly among university leaders, some of whom have been forced to make major cuts amid deteriorating sector finances.
That speech followed concern over a lack of engagement from Kyle on science policies – with the latter agenda seen to be led by Patrick Vallance, the government’s former chief scientific adviser.
Instead, Kyle concentrated mainly on the technology side at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), with Vallance steering science alongside his role as official champion for the
“If Vallance does the detail as we expect, Kendall may at least do a bit more of the sector engagements that have been missing of late,” argued Diana Beech, director of the Finsbury Institute at City St George’s University of London, who was a special adviser to three Conservative science ministers.
“That could go a long way to making the sector feel it is being listened to and loved, and not just having things done to it,” said Beech.
While Kendall, a University of Cambridge history graduate who worked in thinktanks and as a ministerial adviser prior to her election to parliament in 2010, did “not have a strong track record in science and innovation, she is a seasoned and capable politician – and a safe pair of hands for DSIT”, continued Beech.
“Her appointment marks a welcome shift from the male-dominated science policy agenda of the past year and could signal a return to a more traditional focus on publicly funded research and innovation, rather than the technocratic emphasis on digital transformation that preoccupied her predecessor,” she added.
The arrival of an established Cabinet member at DSIT might prove difficult for the department given Vallance’s enormous policy influence and profile within the department, warned John Womersley, former executive chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Research Council, who is now a special adviser at the University of Edinburgh.
“Vallance is a big person for a relatively junior role in government and his presence [across government] expanded to recognise this,” said Womersley, adding: “It was clear it was Vallance making the decisions on UK Research and Innovation and the Research Excellence Framework”.
Describing Vallance as a “domain heavyweight” to Kyle’s “generalist minister”, Womersley continued: “Kyle was the political one who’d sit on sofas in TV studios on a Sunday and defend the government in general. He also got stuck into the online safety and digital disinformation debates, which seemed to be a personal hobby horse of his,” he continued.
“He came across as very much a Labour party political actor with ambitions elsewhere, rather than being close to the DSIT brief.”
Referring to Vallance’s dual ministerial role at both DSIT and the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero, where he was appointed minister on 6 September, Womersley added: “Kendall might need to be more hands-on with universities and research – she might have her own vision and that will be interesting to see how this works.”
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