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Executive summary At a time when increasing concern about climate change is forcing governments across the world to reassess their countries' dependence on fossil fuels, this report highlights one of the UK's major hidden subsidies for the petroleum industry. It looks at the ways in which Britain's higher education sector supports the continued dominance - and even expansion - of the oil and gas industry. Renewable energy, by contrast, is given just a fraction of this help. This report demonstrates that universities, which could be leading society away from its dependence on unsustainable energy consumption, are in fact reinforcing it. Research and Development (R&D) The UK higher education sector carries out 981 R&D projects, worth an estimated £67m per year, for the oil and gas industry. The biggest area of research is geological (460 projects) - finding where new fields are and how to exploit them. There is also the development of new technology and drilling techniques, which enable the industry to extract petroleum from ever more marginal areas - such as the deep ocean. Thus much R&D serves to expand oil reserves. By contrast, renewable energy receives only about 190 R&D projects in UK higher education institutions, worth just £11.6m per year. The contribution of R&D to bringing renewable technologies closer to market is counteracted by the much greater amount of R&D which further expands petroleum’s competitive advantage. Over 50% of oil and gas R&D projects in higher education institutions are paid for by the taxpayer, and a further 23% receive part public funding. The direct public subsidy is estimated at £36m per year. Renewables receive just a quarter of this amount from the public purse - £9m. Government funding of R&D is now focused on achieving industry co-funding. This naturally favours fossil fuels over renewable energy because the fossil fuels industry is considerably larger. Imperial College, London, stands out as by far the biggest provider of oil and gas industry know-how, with 145 of the 980 projects. Other key institutions supporting the industry are Heriot-Watt, Newcastle and Southampton Universities and University College, London. Research into worker safety and environmental impact is small - only 66 of the 981 research projects in UK HEIs - and mostly funded by the public purse rather than industry. Since 1994 however, the industry has increased its share of funding of research into its environmental impact, as it wants more involvement in the growing environmental debate. For example, Exxon sponsored 3 British scientists to evaluate Exxon Valdez spill damage, who had a reputation for considering spills to be less devastating than the rest of the scientific community thinks. Graduate recruitment Major oil and gas companies use their high profile to attract the best students to work for them. Career paths into renewable energy are much less clearly defined. Recent years have seen course curricula increasingly tailored to meet the needs of industry. Some degree courses now entirely specialise in oil and gas. Often areas of study are set in consultation with industry representatives. Sponsorship of postgraduate students is popular in the fossil fuels industry. With undergraduates the preference is for cheaper options such as site visits, vacation courses and placements. Many of the methods by which students are attracted are more informal, including advertising in departments, placing company branding on donated buildings and equipment, and using personal connections with academics. The industry derives a substantial part of its graduate workforce from a fairly small number of HE institutions - of 642 oil industry graduate recruits in 1996, 256 (40%) studied in just four institutions - Robert Gordon, Aberdeen and Heriot-Watt universities and Imperial College, London. Building the relationship In order to maintain their influence over research priorities and course curricula, petroleum companies provide higher education institutions with staff and give generous donations. The biggest donation to date by the sector was BP's gift of £19.5m to Cambridge University in 1998 for an institute specialising in petroleum studies. Personal connections are also fostered through former industry staff taking up academic positions. The highest level personal connection is in the Rector of Imperial College, who is a director of Shell. The relationship between the petroleum industry and higher education is also maintained at the government level, with the industry well represented on a number of policy-making bodies, and on the grant awarding boards of the Research Councils EPSRC and NERC. Consequences for higher education The current UK government's approach to higher education focuses strongly on the short term, justifying research decisions only on their immediate commercial benefit, and neglecting work which could serve to build up useful long-term capabilities. Equally, students are channelled into a limited number of established careers, with little effort spent on developing the new skills that should lead us into the 21st Century. In researching this report we found that most information on industry involvement in higher education is kept from the public view. There are no comprehensive registers, and in most cases universities do not compile lists of grants and contracts for public release. Such information used to be published in university annual reports, but now commercial confidentiality takes precedence over public accountability. |