The values of English universities: questioning the role of value statements and mapping their current focus

Universities now routinely promote value statements in order to express their beliefs and moral principles – adopting the practice of many commercial organisations. However, such value statements have rarely been collated or studied across the sector, which is what this paper sets out to do. Focusing on English universities, current value statements were collected and thematically analysed in order to assess what values universities in England claim to embrace; whether there are patterns in these value statements; and how these values are used to characterise the ‘business’ of higher education. A small number of key themes are used to typify value statements across a majority of institutions and differences between sub-groups of universities are identified. The paper concludes by questioning why universities adopt and publicise value statements and what role they might play in universities’ projections of themselves.

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Higher Education Policy. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Elwick, A. (2018). The Values of English Universities: Questioning the Role of Value Statements and Mapping Their Current Focus. Higher Education Policy. doi:10.1057/s41307-018-0112-x is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-018-0112-x