I’ve just wrapped up three days at the Labour Party Conference, which took place at the stunning Liverpool Docks. As well as Chairing HEPI’s own event – sponsored by the University of Birmingham, Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sussex – which outlined the manifestos of three UK Vice-Chancellors, I’ve been on the hunt for the number one higher education policy theme from this year’s conference.
Echoing the blog last week by Josh Freeman, Policy Manager at HEPI, which focussed on the Conservative Party Conference, the words university and degree were rarely heard. Perhaps, at the big-picture national policy level, there is an ambivalence driven by, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. The only exception to this was, unsurprisingly, around funding.
So, what were we talking about? The number one, big theme that came out of conference in terms of higher education was:
‘Education institutions need to work together, in their local area, to plug the skills gap. This provision needs to be flexible, modular, and life-long.’
