Universities blueprint seeks new HE-government compact

With the United Kingdom’s peak body for higher education discovering new-found confidence in mastering the future of the sector and the end of culture wars between universities and the last government, there is genuine relief that the new Labour administration appears to be willing to listen to fresh ideas to build better and stronger universities.

Seizing on the outbreak of peace, Universities UK (UUK) has finally produced its “blueprint” pointing the way forward for cash-strapped British universities which have become increasingly dependent on fee income from international students not only to prop up the cost of teaching home students, but also to subsidise research and innovation, and other activities.

The “blueprint for change”, as UUK cleverly calls its report, Opportunity, growth and partnership, uses all the right words to try to appeal to the new government led by Sir Keir Starmer and calls for a global strategy that goes beyond student recruitment and a new compact between higher education and government “grounded in the openness of our sector”.

The blueprint, says UUK, wants to help create a joined-up policy and strategy that ends the divide between the 2023 UK Science and Technology Framework, which makes just one reference to universities, and the UK’s International Education Strategy, which was largely an export strategy to boost overseas student numbers.

Word of warning

However, before the celebrations get out of hand, there is a word of warning from Dr Diana Beech, chief executive of London Higher – the voice of higher education in the capital – who was a political advisor to three former ministers responsible for higher education in the early years of the last Conservative government.

She told University World News: “Any deal with government, no matter how well intentioned, is risky business and could expose universities over time, particularly nearing a general election, to the imposition of caps or quotas, such as those currently being implemented in Canada and Australia.”

Despite her warning, Beech said: “After recent uncertainty about the UK’s position in the world and attitudes to immigration, it is pleasing to see the Universities UK ‘blueprint’ making clear British universities’ commitment to global excellence and international activities, and attempting to reassert universities at the heart of the new government’s drive for global impact and national prosperity.”

She particularly welcomed measures to enhance the UK’s appeal to international researchers and technical and support staff and the proposal “to give several Whitehall departments skin in the game”, via the creation of a Global Strategy for Universities.

“If delivered across Whitehall as proposed, this would force departments to look beyond their own areas of concern and understand better the interdependencies of policies on different areas of the university and research ecosystem, thereby lessening the risk of poor future policymaking,” she said.

Panic measures

International student numbers in the UK have soared in recent years and reached 758,855 in 2022-23, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), with a further 550,000 registered on UK programmes in more than 200 countries and overseas territories.

However, the last government fell out of love with universities going for growth, despite its own strategy urging them to do so, and tried to slam on the brakes to any further expansion of international higher education inside the UK after becoming alarmed about the huge rise in net migration since the British government “took back control” of its own borders after Brexit.

This led to panic measures, such as a government ban on international taught masters students bringing dependants with them to study in the UK, which came into force in January 2024, and a rise in visa costs, as University World News reported.

The number of family members accompanying international students rose from 16,047 in 2019 to 135,788 in 2022 and the increased pressure on accommodation close to campuses and on schools and other public services “tested political and public support for international recruitment”, the UUK report recognises.

Universities also faced threats from a government-inspired review into the two-year post-study Graduate (work) Route, which was dropped just before the recent UK general election.

The increase in upfront costs for foreign talent wanting to come to work or study in the UK, including the NHS surcharge, is another challenge with the UUK report claiming that immigration costs for those coming to Britain are now six to eight times higher than across competitor economies.

Decline in applications

This has all helped undermine the attractiveness of the UK and the country has seen a sharp decline in applications to study at UK universities, particularly for postgraduate one-year taught masters programmes and particularly from India and Nigeria.

The financial pressure on many UK universities following the fall in students enrolling helped fuel media speculation that universities would offer to curb rises in overseas students in return for the chance to raise domestic tuition fees, which have been frozen at a maximum of £9,250 (US$12,360) since 2017.

The financial pressures will only increase if a core ambition set out in the report is to be realised: that the proportion of the domestic population entering tertiary level education should be raised from 52.7% to 70% by 2040.

This challenge is set to be compounded by a UK population bulge as there will be around 9.7% more 18-year-olds in 2030 compared with 2023.

As the report stresses, widening participation will also require addressing inequalities and it calls for maintenance grants for students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds to be reinstated and maintenance loans to be increased in line with inflation.

This will stack up further costs that would make further restrictions on international student recruitment even more painful.

However, the UUK report actually only offers to develop a new agreement whereby universities and government take action “to secure sustainable levels of international student recruitment and well-managed growth”.

The blueprint’s section on global reach was written by former Tory universities minister, now Lord (David) Willetts, who also recommended benchmarking immigration costs for academics, entrepreneurs and technical staff to ensure that the UK attracts talented people.

His chapter also urges the UK government to commit to the Turing outward mobility scheme while considering the case for association to the next EU Erasmus programme and to engage positively with the development of the next European framework programme for research.

Financial stability

The chapter on putting universities on a firm financial footing was written by Professor Shitij Kapur, vice-chancellor of King’s College London, and John Rushforth, executive secretary of the Committee of University Chairs.

It declares: “The funding of universities across the UK is structurally unsustainable”, but it doesn’t lay the financial crisis entirely at the government’s door and points out that universities are already making significant cuts to balance their budgets and find better and more streamlined ways of working.

The report suggests a two-pronged solution: first, action to prevent further deterioration of the financial stability by increasing funding for teaching to meet the real costs through linking (tuition) fees to inflation and restoring the teaching grant.

It also wants policy stability in relation to international students to achieve sustainable, managed growth and reverse the decline in quality-related funding for research.

Secondly, in a section the report calls “From surviving to thriving”, it wants help so that universities can transform their business and operating model through greater specialisation, shared services and collaboration to deliver vulnerable subjects; and for universities to become more agile in responding to specific needs of students, employers and local communities.

This could mean moving away from focusing on three-year, full-time undergraduate courses towards more modular learning, supported by the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) and “working with employers to develop provision in new areas”.

Losing sight of priorities

Dr David Pilsbury, chief development officer at Oxford International Education Group, described the blueprint as “a thoughtful account” of the challenges facing UK higher education and research, but said: “In seeking to address so many areas there is a real danger that the must-do’s get lost amongst the nice-to-do’s.”

He told University World News: “Whilst we wait for the government to develop its thinking on the future of higher education, the absolute priority is to stabilise funding. So, as well as allowing domestic tuition fees to rise with inflation, the government needs to support the recovery of overseas student recruitment to UK universities.”

Pilsbury also warned that the threatened crackdowns on student visas by former (Conservative) home secretary James Cleverly had not completely died with the election of a new Labour government, which was already following up on one of the proposals by issuing a tender for a proposed new government mandated secure English language test for international applicants.

“The Cleverly proposals remain unfinished business and that potential bomb needs to be defused,” said Pilsbury.

He was also anxious that some “powers-that-be” didn’t believe the Agent Quality Framework jointly developed by the British Universities’ International Liaison Association and the British Council went far enough.

“We don’t want any knee jerk reaction to oft-stated, but generally unevidenced assertions, of [foreign student recruitment] agent misbehaviour,” said Pilsbury.

Value of overseas students

Ruth Arnold, executive director of external affairs at Study Group and a champion of the #WeAreInternational campaign promoting the value of overseas students to the UK, told University World News she welcomed the way the UUK blueprint brought together the various elements that make UK universities among the most admired around the world.

“I like how international education underpins almost every chapter of this report, not only the one on global reach.

“British research is cross-subsidised by international fees, but also carried out by international teams including researchers who have worked all over the world, or perhaps came to British universities first as international students,” she said.

“Civic impact is also underpinned by international students and staff. There would be no Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre – and related apprenticeship training centre – in South Yorkshire without international industrial partners and the first engineer placed in a local company was the daughter of a Vietnamese boat refugee.

“And while the economic impacts of universities are well rehearsed, we shouldn’t forget that regional hospitals and dentists’ practices are sustained by international students undertaking placements. And NHS consultants are often international and on joint contracts with universities,” she explained.

The high point of UUK activism?

Final comment to Sir Anthony Seldon, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham from 2015 to 2020, who asked in a blog for the Higher Education Policy Institute why it has taken so long for UUK to get its head above the parapet?

He urged the UUK to become as vocal as the Confederation of British Industry and the Football Association in trying to influence government policy in favour of the sector.

His only warning echoed that of Beech from London Higher when he suggested that the UUK report seemed “a little too keen to address the new Government’s agenda”, but added the new Labour administration is “clearly in a mood to listen”.

Seldon said this was partly because they are “frightened by the very real possibility of university closures”, citing the rumoured difficulties at the universities of Coventry, Huddersfield, Kent and York.

“The test of this report is whether it will mark the high point of UUK activism, or merely the staging post on an entirely new vision for it and the sector,” said Seldon.

Nic Mitchell is a UK-based freelance journalist and PR consultant specialising in European and international higher education. He blogs at www.delacourcommunications.com