The Headlines
The Need for UK Collaboration
As more British universities face financial uncertainty, could collaboration play a key role to alleviate those woes?
By John O’ Leary
"The financially challenging circumstances of the current environment, while difficult, also present an opportunity for creativity and experimentation since institutions may be willing to consider approaches that would have previously been deemed too complicated to undertake."
In much of the Western world – and certainly in the United Kingdom – over the last decade and more, universities have had to compete to thrive or even survive. Now, as it has become harder to balance the books, many of those in the UK are wondering if collaboration is beneficial after all.
The competitive nature of funding for both teaching and research, with fees for home undergraduates frozen for almost a decade and recruitment of international students in decline, has contributed to dangerous instability in many institutions. Durham University and Cardiff University are among the leading UK universities to have announced substantial course and job cuts. Lecturers at the University of Sheffield and the University of East Anglia have also been balloting for strike action.
A survey by higher education website Wonkhe showed that almost 13 percent of UK universities had registered a deficit by the official deadline for submitting accounts, but many of those thought to be in financial difficulty were yet to make a declaration. Something approaching 40 percent are expected to be in deficit when all the figures are in.
According to a joint report by UK’s digital, data and technology agency for higher education, Jisc, and management accountants, KPMG, there is unprecedented support for greater collaboration in the provision of services Manchester and Liverpool universities have already announced a partnership to promote innovation to benefit the North West of England, with the backing of the high-profile mayors of both cities. The two universities plan to collaborate in several areas, including research into more sustainable production of medicines and vaccines, the transition to net zero, developing the industry of quantum mechanics and promoting the creative industries.
The authors of the report, Collaboration for a Sustainable Future, said: “While the sector does have experience of successful collaboration, the default approach amongst individual institutions is frequently to ‘go it alone’, and seek solutions to digital, data and technological challenges in isolation.
“This is despite every university facing the same issues, wanting the same benefits and using the same systems. This is in part based on a false assumption relating to differentiation: the majority of activities in an institution do not yield competitive advantage in terms of recruiting students and staff or winning research income.”
As part of its work for the sector, Jisc undertakes licensing and negotiation with publishers and software vendors. Over the course of the last 25 years, this activity has grown to offer institutions the ability to subscribe to over 400 products. Through close collaboration with experts and senior leaders in institutions from across the HE sector, Jisc claims to have given all institutions a voice in the negotiations, widened access to essential resources and applications, saved institutions money and helped with the implementation of open access policies. Independent analysis by Frontier Economics estimated that Jisc’s licensing activity saved institutions at least £136 million a year.
The report identified five broad areas for future collaboration between universities: greater central coordination of activity, central provision of funding and skills development in digital data and technology, sharing of applications, joint provision or commissioning of whole services, and developing technology specifically for the sector. It concluded: “The financially challenging circumstances of the current environment, while difficult, also present an opportunity for creativity and experimentation since institutions may be willing to consider approaches that would have previously been deemed too complicated to undertake. However, time is of the essence, and it would benefit institutions to start the journey now, before external factors mandate a particular course of action.”
In a follow-up debate hosted by the Higher Education Policy Institute, Sam Sanders, KPMG’s Advisory Lead for Education, Skills and Productivity, noted that there had been strong consensus among the 22 universities involved in the project, which had not been the case previously. Differing institutional cultures, an absence of coordination and the difficulty of making a business case had all hampered progress up to now. “If you are looking for short-term or immediate savings, this probably isn’t the place to start,” he said. “But long term, it absolutely is. You can sustain branding and status while still collaborating.”
Universities UK has established a task force on institutional transformation, which will report in May. Collaboration will be one of the main themes, in line with the Government’s agenda for higher education. Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, announcing the first rise in tuition fees for almost a decade, said: “Universities must deliver better value for money for students and taxpayers: that is why this investment must come with a major package of reforms so they can drive growth around the country and serve the communities they are rooted in.”
Sir Chris Husbands, the former Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University and Chair of the highly competitive Teaching Excellence Framework, which gives official ratings for the student experience by university and subject, told the HEPI seminar that competition had delivered real benefits, especially in student services and research, but it had also encouraged homogeneity, duplication and overprovision. “Institutions are still finding it difficult to look at the challenges in a sufficiently strategic way,” he said. “A lot is happening but probably not enough, and that has to change.”
“The solution is a change in the culture of leadership, which has been done in other sectors,” Husbands added. “If we are a self-confident sector, we have to find the confidence to work differently.”
Nevertheless, however willing universities may be, there could still be obstacles to some forms of collaboration. Cardiff, which is planning 200 redundancies, has been advised that competition laws would prevent the university from discussing the fate of nursing courses with two neighbouring institutions that also offer the subject. Professor Wendy Larner, the vice-chancellor, told British daily The Times: “We took legal advice. I do think this is a real challenge for the sector and for the new Universities UK efficiency task force. If we’re going to be more collaborative, take duplication out and all play to our strengths, these are precisely the kinds of conversations we need to be allowed to have. It means I couldn’t explore potential solutions prior to this point.”