Warden helps shape university sector blueprint

The Warden of Goldsmiths has helped shape a plan to put universities on a firm financial footing as part of a range of proposals for higher education.

Professor Frances Corner was a member of the Advisory Group which produced a key chapter for the report "Opportunity, growth and partnership: a blueprint for change from the UK’s universities" which has been published by sector representative Universities UK.

The chapter "Putting universities on a firm financial footing" focuses on achieving sustainable funding for the sector through action by the government and institutions.

The chapter states: "The funding of universities is structurally unsustainable across all four nations in the UK. Universities are already making very significant cuts to balance their budgets and will need to continue to find better and more streamlined ways of working, but we need further action from both universities themselves, and from government.

"For England, we propose a two phased approach to this. In the first phase government and the sector should work to stabilise the sector’s finances. In the second phase government could support university led transformation."

The key recommendations are: 

Phase one – government should support the sector to take immediate steps to move to a more solid foundation by: 

• Increasing funding for teaching to meet the real costs through a combination of linking fees to inflation and restoring the teaching grant
• Ensure policy stability in relation to international students in order to achieve sustainable, managed growth
• Reverse the decline in quality related funding for research
• Working with the sector establish a sustainable solution for universities in relation to the significant increase in contributions to the Teachers Pension Scheme
• Develop, with the sector, a clear plan to implement should an English university find itself in severe financial distress 

Phase two: 

• Universities UK commits to leading a transformative programme of work which will bring our members together to share learning and good practice in relation to efficiency, transformation and income generation; and explore options for additional regional or national shared services
• Universities should look to boost philanthropic giving building on substantial growth in recent years. Government could support the sector in growing a culture of giving to universities, including by exploring the potential to repeat previously successful matched funding schemes and introduce tax efficient vehicles for legacy giving
• Government can support universities to work in more efficient and effective ways by removing VAT on shared services; introducing a transformation fund to enable and accelerate university led-change, and by supporting sustainable and well managed growth in international recruitment

Professor Corner said: "These proposals set out a bold package of reform to secure and boost higher education’s contribution to economic growth and widening opportunity.

"Universities including Goldsmiths are uniquely placed across the country to drive significant public benefit, but without sustainable funding we will find it harder to deliver on this core part of our work."

The Universities UK report is in response to growing challenges to the world-leading university sector in the UK, including a broad acknowledgement that the funding system is not fit for purpose.

The chapter’s Commissioners were Professor Shitij Kapur, Vice-Chancellor and President of King’s College London, and John Rushforth, Executive Secretary, Committee of University Chairs.

Writing in the chapter, they said: "UK universities have been remarkably entrepreneurial and successful in the last decade. Despite a fixed and shrinking domestic resource, they have managed to engage internationally and generate the revenues to support research and domestic education of the highest quality.

"However, that innings has run its course. If universities are forced to play the same game for longer, we jeopardise the sector and its international reputation and success. It is time for universities and government to sit down together and agree a new financial model for the system that works for students, serves all our regions and ensures the future growth and prosperity of the UK."