Universities could be “part of the election campaign in a way they do not want” if campus controversies are seized on by Conservatives using culture wars to split the Labour vote, according to the author of the last Tory manifesto, who said that currently “everyone hates the Conservatives for the same reasons”.
Rachel Wolf, a founding partner at political consultancy Public First, also said universities should keep in mind on funding that for any government “fiscal is everything” and for Labour “fiscal is going to be conservative”.
The advice for universities ahead of the election campaign was to “make it local, make it tangible”, she told a Higher Education Policy Institute and Advance HE event looking at how higher education should prepare for the next general election.
On manifestos, universities should remember that “if there is money to spend – big if – you are not top of the list”, advised Ms Wolf, who co-wrote the 2019 Conservative Party election manifesto and was an adviser to Boris Johnson in his time as shadow higher education minister. Voters “do not generally want to talk about universities – and politicians respond to the electorate”, she added.
