Contract and covenant in English college-based higher education partnerships

This research explores ethics in the context of education collaboration and partnership work. It is part of a wider collaborative provision study of leaders and managers in 4 universities and 15 colleges, and it draws upon interviews, meetings and conversations, focusing upon the character of the partnership relationship as depicted by the participants in the study. In the analysis, the terms ‘contract’ and ‘covenant’ are used respectively to describe business and educational aspects and features of CBHE partnerships. Rather than viewing these as a duality or in tension with each other, the evidence of the data points to an assimilation between the two. The ethical dimension of partnership and collaboration in the higher education context is found to be widely present and to co-exist with more business-focused, means-ends formulations. Judging from this data, financial and instrumental motivations were rarely unaccompanied by a more altruistic sense of the educational partnership as worthwhile in its own right, a good thing, and as a powerful lever for higher education access and widening participation. The article concludes by noting the complexity of CBHE partnerships, suggesting that this should be borne in mind in future research.