A new report sets out a bold package of reforms to widen opportunity and boost the sector’s contribution to growing the economy.
Opportunity, growth, and partnership: a blueprint for change from the UK’s universities published on 30 September 2024, is authored by a series of experts from within and outside higher education on behalf of Universities UK (UUK), including Professor Nick Pearce , Director of the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at the University and Professor Matt Dickson , who leads the IPR’s programme of research on widening participation in higher education.
The detailed report includes recommendations on how universities can do more to break down barriers to opportunity, help boost the economy, train the doctors and nurses of the future and support the drive to net zero. Achieving this, the blueprint says, will require the sector to change, becoming more efficient, collaborating more and transforming ways of working. The blueprint also calls on the UK government to stabilise the sector’s finances and increase direct public funding in England so the cost of going to university is rebalanced towards government instead of students.
Nick Pearce, professor of public policy, who drafted the opening chapter on Expanding Opportunity, said: "The expansion of higher education in recent decades has enabled access to universities to be widened significantly. However, part-time and mature participation has fallen, maintenance support has been eroded, and social class and other inequalities persist in access, achievement and graduate employment.
"In the future, expansion should focus on tertiary education, with opportunities opened up across the country, maintenance grants should be restored, and better support made available to students with mental health and other needs. In a democracy, it is important for social integration and equality to educate people from diverse backgrounds together in our institutions of higher learning."
Matt Dickson, professor of economic and social policy, who advised on Expanding Opportunity, added: "Despite the progress made in recent years to expand access to higher education, there remain considerable challenges to ensuring that those with the desire and ability to go to university are able to do so, regardless of background and geography. Moreover, action is required to address the persistent barriers that lead to inequalities in attainment at university and successful progression into the graduate labour market."
Key ideas in the blueprint include:
- A major efficiency drive by universities to achieve transformative change in the way they work
- Increasing the opportunities for students from parts of the country and backgrounds where participation in higher levels of education is currently low, working with schools and colleges
- Working more closely in local areas with businesses, chambers of commerce and metro mayors to make the strongest possible contribution to growth at local and regional levels
To deliver on these reforms and maximise the considerable contribution they can make to the Government’s five missions, the report argues Government must act to put the sector on a sustainable financial footing as a virtual freeze in tuition fees in England over the last 12 years has decimated the finances of universities. The blueprint sets out a two-stage approach; to stabilise the university sector’s finances, and then helping to transform them to mobilise and maximise the contribution universities can make to the success of the UK.
The blueprint argues the universities provide many public benefits - not just benefits to individuals through higher earnings. Government in England currently contributes just 16 per cent of current funding towards a degree - one of the lowest proportions amongst developed countries.
Professor Dame Sally Mapstone FRSE, President of UUK and Principal and Vice-Chancellor of St Andrews University, said: "Universities are essential to economic growth. For every one pound spent on them, the government makes 14 pounds in return. But we face a choice. We can take the path which leads to better and stronger universities, delivering on the new government’s missions, and doing more to open up opportunities to a broader range of people, or we can let them slide into decline.
"We must choose the former path. This is not just government’s responsibility. It is a shared responsibility with universities themselves, and one which we are taking head on with this blueprint.
"This country needs its universities firing on all cylinders if we are going to turn a corner in economic growth. We want to work with government in an ambitious new partnership to make sure that happens."
- In the UK, government covers 16% of higher education’s costs - the lowest in the developed world.
- Research by London Economics for UUK published recently showed that the total impact of UK higher education is £265 billion (based on 2021/22 figures).
The chapters and authors of ’Opportunity, growth, and partnership: a blueprint for change from the UK’s universities’ are:
Chapter 1 - Expanding opportunity Commissioner - Professor Nick Pearce
Chapter 2 - More responsive and collaborative tertiary education Commissioners - Professor David Phoenix and Dame Ann Limb
Chapter 3 - Generating local growth Commissioner - Rain Newton-Smith
Chapter 4 - A world-leading research and innovation system Commissioner - The Rt. Hon. the Lord Mandelson
Chapter 5 - Our universities’ global reach, reputation, and impact Commissioner - The Rt. Hon. the Lord Willetts
Chapter 6 - Putting universities on a firm financial footing Commissioner - Professor Shitij Kapur and John Rushforth
Chapter 7 - Better regulation Commissioner - Professor Julia Black
Chapter 8 - Improving how the impact of universities is assessed Commissioner - Andy Haldane
