51³Ô¹Ï

Without oversight of university mergers, the UK risks ¡°sleepwalking¡± into a homogenised and ¡°disconnected¡± higher education sector, it has been warned.

Facing mounting financial pressures, universities are increasingly considering more collaboration, including mergers and acquisitions, but there are fears this could damage the country¡¯s diverse higher education offering.

In a? to the House of Commons Education Select Committee inquiry into university finances, representative body GuildHE warned that while ¡°mergers can deliver benefits¡±, without ¡°a body with oversight of the whole system, the UK could sleepwalk into a homogenised sector which would not serve our country well¡±.

It referenced the situation in Australia, where a?2022 review of higher education saw policymakers urged to consider whether universities had become too big and too similar.

¡°Systems leadership and oversight is required to ensure that a variety of institutional types are preserved because this has been key to ensuring sector health and resilience in systems elsewhere around the world,¡± Brooke Storer-Church, chief executive of GuildHE, told 51³Ô¹Ï.

¡°We have put faith in [the Department for Education] to produce a systems-level vision for the sector but we have yet to see it.¡±

Recently the universities of Greenwich and Kent?announced plans?to form a multi-university group ¨C the biggest merger of its type in recent years. Several other universities have decided to cut courses with low enrolments, with 4,000 estimated to have been lost this year.

These moves are being decided at an institutional level, GuildHE fears, leading to the?emergence of cold spots?and threatening smaller institutions that are less able to cope with financial headwinds.?

The concerns are fuelled by data that suggests?higher-tariff institutions are hoovering up students?as competition grows, leaving lower-tariff and specialist institutions more at risk.

Edward Venning, partner at Six Ravens Consulting, agreed that high-level oversight is required.

¡°There are incredible opportunities to be created by a deliberate, system-level approach to mergers and acquisition,¡± he said.?

¡°We should imitate or improve on the deliberate system design evident in other national strategies where the intention is growth, stratification and global competitive advantage.?

¡°As a precondition of support for any merger, we could mandate sector-wide design principles, such as alignment on boring but necessary reforms such as common data architectures, credit ladders, system integrations, microcredentials.

¡°Instead, we risk a creeping death by badly engineered, disconnected, case-by-case consolidation.¡±

While the government is expected to set out its vision for UK higher education in a forthcoming post-16 White Paper, it seems unlikely that policymakers will be keen to intervene too closely.?

¡°[Universities UK] and GuildHE, amongst other sector bodies, are attempting to fill that vacuum, but the success of our efforts depends on understanding the vision we¡¯re working towards,¡± said Storer-Church.

¡°There is a need for some oversight, which may be best expressed as an independent body working between government and the sector to understand the government¡¯s vision and then facilitate collaborative initiatives and advise on reshaping of institutions without jeopardising our shared goals around access, success and growth.??

¡°It could also escalate concerns to government where risks intensify in order to inform necessary interventions while preserving the sector¡¯s relative autonomy, in theory.¡±

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com