Higher education is a funny old game

By Nick Petford. Universities and football teams have much in common, says Nick Petford – should fans in both arenas now accept that their beautiful games are first and foremost businesses?
I have been a Chelsea fan since the age of nine so it was a pleasure on Christmas day to unwrap the book, I Am The Secret Footballer. Not because Mr S Footballer is likely a Chelsea player (the internet is rife with speculation over his identity), but rather due to the book's claim that most fans don't understand what football is really about. The book highlights a discrepancy between the view of the majority looking in from outside (the fans) versus the profession – the players, managers, agents and WAGs. This got me thinking about our own 'industry' and how the different internal and external players – academics, students, professional services, management, regulators and, increasingly, parents – also have their own take on issues common to them all.
Of course making a link between football and universities is hardly novel: annual league tables being the most obvious parallel, along with commentary comparing the transfer market in star academics with the Premiership in the run up to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), and next year's Research Excellence Framework (REF). What really struck home reading the book, however, was fans' lack of recognition that their game is now a business that just happens to be a sport. In that order. Read more...