A vice-chancellor has warned the higher education minister Robert Halfon that the government risks “the managed decline of universities” by allowing the erosion of their funding, while Labour has pledged to create a “more sustainable system”.
At Universities UK’s annual conference, Mr Halfon faced strong challenges from vice-chancellors in the audience on funding, which is being eroded by inflation while the freeze of the £9,250 tuition fee cap remains in place.
Meanwhile, Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary, told the conference that the government “knows the present system is not one that will endure”, but was “running from it”.
Mr Halfon reiterated his recent comments in an interview with Times Higher Education, in which he rejected calls from universities to lift the fee cap by saying that raising fees during a cost-of-living crisis is “just not going to happen, not in a million years”.
Addressing Mr Halfon from the audience, David Maguire, vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia – which is seeking to recover from a financial crisis – said there was “less money each year to try to achieve the same outcomes”.
“If we are not careful we will see the managed decline of universities,” he added, referring to the potential loss of the ability to provide personalised support for students and the “necessary equipment” for researchers.
“The country and government will get what it chooses to fund,” he continued, urging Mr Halfon and the government to “think through the implications of these decisions as you plan future spending decisions”.
“I understand the predicament,” Mr Halfon replied. “We have to deal with the world as it is” and with “the financial constraints on the government, which are huge”, he went on.
“I don’t support a rise in tuition fees at this time…I can’t just come along and say everything to make you happy, although I’d love to. But I’m doing everything I can.”
Dame Sally Mapstone, the Universities UK president and University of St Andrews vice-chancellor, who interviewed Mr Halfon on stage, said to him: “I think it’s very helpful for you to hear direct from our vice-chancellors.”
Mr Halfon said: “I haven’t just heard this today. I meet with you guys [UUK] regularly and I meet with other university bodies…So I absolutely understand. I’m not under any illusions there are huge challenges.”
Ms Phillipson, who delivered a speech via video link, said the party’s “first priority” would be to reform a “desperately unfair” student finance system.
After the speech, she was pressed by St George’s, University of London principal Jenny Higham, who is leading UUK’s work on funding, about what Labour would do on university funding.
The shadow minister replied: “I hope you’ll appreciate that…an incoming Labour government would not be able to fix every problem overnight. But I am determined we will deliver a more sustainable system, overall, for our universities.
“I think the government knows the present system is not one that will endure. But like so many of the difficult challenges we see at the moment, they are running from it.
“We will grasp it. We will work with you as a government to deliver it.”
Ms Phillipson criticised the government for treating universities “not as a public good, but a political battleground” and for making the Office for Students a “politicised regulator lacking both the respect and ambition it needs to be effective”.
Mr Halfon reiterated his “dream”, expressed prior to being a minister, for “at least 50 per cent” of university students to be doing degree apprenticeships.
That was “not government policy” just “a personal view”, but he was “doing everything possible to encourage it”, he added.
