UK ‘not making the most’ of universities’ soft power, MP says

There is “great potential” for the UK to grow its soft power influence as countries across the world close off their higher education sectors, according to politicians and vice-chancellors – but the government must seize the opportunity. 

Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge, told delegates at a fringe session at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Monday that sector advocates “should be using the huge, huge strength we have in soft power to make the case for universities”. 

Zeichner, speaking on a panel organised by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), explained that when he travelled abroad as minister of state for food security and rural affairs between 2024 and 2025, people would often ask him about the University of Cambridge and would often speak of their connections to UK universities. 

“It was quite extraordinary. The global brands we have got through our universities cut right across [the world] almost without exception; almost all of [the people he spoke to] had some link or knowledge of the city.”

This global reputation of the UK’s universities should be better utilised to make a case for them at the government level, he said, adding: “Someone’s got to beat the drum for universities. It seems to me there are not enough of us doing that in Parliament in particular…If we’re making the case for universities in a hostile environment, that influence we have through soft power seems to me to really be a part of [doing] that.”

The panel followed the release of Hepi’s Soft Power Index, the latest annual edition of which, published earlier this month, ranked the UK as the second most influential country for higher education behind the US, having educated a total of 60 world leaders – its highest ever total. 

Duncan Ivison, vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester, agreed that the UK is not making the most of its universities’ potential to build its soft power, which he described as “deeply problematic”. 

He said that US president Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions and “full-on attack” on US research is “dismantling” what made “America great”: its position as a “place of global talent”. Meanwhile, Australia and Canada have also recently tightened their restrictions on international students.

“Our three biggest competitors are shutting the doors, closing the blinds, and they’re turning off their borders,” said Ivison, who has worked in both Australia and his native Canada. “This is not just a once in a generation opportunity: it’s a once in a seventh generation opportunity for the UK to become the global destination for talent and that place that continues to invest in research and development…and yet we’re blowing it up” through the UK’s own visa restrictions.

“I think the task of the sector is not just to complain about it but to demonstrate the value we can provide and demonstrate our alignment to the good growth for the country. I think there is a genuine opportunity in the next two to three years to do something about it,” he added.

He conceded that another “threat to us taking advantage of the opportunities” is the financial challenge facing UK universities, which have resulted in their shedding thousands of jobs in recent years. 

Another problem is that debates around higher education are “second-order debates” in the national political conversation.  

“It’s all tweaking at the margins – this loan scheme, this funding scheme, this bit of UKRI, etcetera – and we’re not having the first-order conversation, which is: what do we want a higher education system for, and what are we willing to pay for it?”

Consequently, “the sector is paralysed” because “we’re in a coordination problem…How do we actually get that first-order conversation going?”

 juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com