“Higher education sector organisation releases new strategic plan” is not usually a headline to make the pulse race.
But when that organisation is Universities UK, and its chief executive Vivienne Stern sums up the issues facing the sector as “an interlocking set of policy and political challenges which are the hardest problems I’ve ever seen” then there’s a case to take an interest.
I caught up with Vivienne and her team at Universities UK conference – the annual gathering of heads of institution and senior sector leaders that traditionally sets the political weather for the year ahead. In previous years universities ministers and secretaries of state have taken the opportunity to reset relationships, harangue the sector, or announce new initiatives, depending on the political moment.
It’s also the opportunity for the UUK president, as the nominated convenor of the policy agenda for universities and de facto spokesperson for the sector, to set out their stall. In her keynote address incoming president Sally Mapstone, principal and vice chancellor of St Andrews University, doubled down on the sector’s growing financial challenges and a plea to policymakers for a more stable funding settlement – noting that among other things the sector is in need of a long term plan to reverse real-terms wage decline for staff and address issues of job insecurity.
