In his book, The Living Company, Arie de Gues observes that most companies either go bust or are acquired within their first 50 years of existence and that it is a rarity for companies to survive for over a century let alone 200 or 300 years.1 He wanted to understand the characteristics of companies that did survive this long and identified four key characteristics: they were sensitive to their environment; they had a strong sense of identity; they were tolerant; and they were conservative in their financing. In reading HEPI’s twentieth anniversary report, I found myself reflecting on these characteristics. Clearly not all universities in the UK are over 100 years old but they seem solidly to meet these criteria.
In this final essay, I want to draw on the lessons of the last 20 years to gaze into the crystal ball to think about the next 20. The diversity of topics covered in the preceding 13 pieces is vast and thus difficult to pull out commonalities, but one framing would be around the alliteration of celebration, change and challenge. As we navigate these ‘in-between times’, we can forget the extraordinary impact that higher education, as a sector, and HEPI, as a think tank, has had over the last 20 years (as Bahram Bekhradnia and Roger Brown recount).2 During that time, UK universities have grown from graduating almost 600,000 people in 2003, to over 900,000 in 2022.3 In and of itself that is a considerable achievement as not only has it provided individual enlightenment for many people, but it has contributed to the economic and social wellbeing of the UK and beyond. Put alongside the indisputably impactful research undertaken in UK universities (as evidenced now by two rounds of REF assessment), and the unique contributions universities made to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is hard not to feel immense pride in the sector. More recently, and perhaps spurred by macro-political concerns around levelling up, we have seen many universities (re)discover their commitment to their locality, embracing the idea of being anchor institutions through civic and community engagement.
As these institutions go on to deliver on these three missions, HEPI sat alongside them celebrating their success, but also challenging universities to think about their responsibilities through analysis and advocacy. Through their many hundreds of reports and events, HEPI has shaped a more robust and evidence-based debate around higher education for two decades. Counterfactual arguments can, at times, be puerile, but it is worth reflecting on how the sector would be without HEPI or at least a think tank that is focused on higher education.
