UK HE ‘needs to get its credibility back’, Labour conference hears

Universities need to work harder to “regain their credibility” and ensure their public benefits are not becoming “invisible”, university vice-chancellors have warned. 

Speaking at the Labour party conference in Liverpool, Penny Haughan, vice-chancellor and rector of Liverpool Hope University, said the current funding system is in a “terrible mess” and that the work of universities is not cutting through with the public. 

“An awful lot of what universities do is completely invisible and so people just don’t know to value it because they don't know it’s there,” she told the event, hosted by the Higher Education Policy Institute. 

She also warned that the sector has incurred reputational damage from concerns over quality control – in franchised provision, for example – and universities needed to be “very clear” about what they have done to address concerns.

“If there are things that haven’t gone well, I think we should be open about them, acknowledge that they haven’t gone well and talk to people about how we’ve put them right, because we do need to get our credibility back in some areas.”

She said transnational education (TNE) was “a huge danger, and we need to be really careful now before it’s too late. I would hate to see it go down the franchising route, but we do have the power to not let that happen,” she said.

Liverpool Hope does not offer franchised degrees abroad but does have numerous study-abroad partnerships with overseas universities.

Julie Sanders, vice-chancellor and principal at Royal Holloway, University of London, agreed that universities “have got to acknowledge where things have gone bad”, adding that they needed to be clearer on the distinction between “public and private” institutions. The latter have been the subject of most of the concerns about quality control.

Speaking on the sector’s financial position, Nishan Canagarajah, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester, said that universities are taking action to make themselves more sustainable but warned that “we can’t do this alone”. 

The government needs to “recognise the pressure” that universities are under and take a more joined-up approach to education policy, he said.

“Every time there is a positive announcement from the government about supporting universities, we get obviously excited. But the next time we also hear something that takes that away,” Cabagarajah said.

“Everything that we do to try and help the sector is undermined by another initiative that takes away the funding that has been provided, so I think we need stability and clarity from the government on how we support our higher education system.”

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com